Gemas railway station

Gemas
Gemas
\| Inter-city rail station
	The new Gemas Railway Station
General information
Location	Gemas, Tampin, Negeri Sembilan; Malaysia
Owned by	Keretapi Tanah Melayu
Line(s)	West Coast Line; East Coast Line
Platforms	3 island platforms
Tracks	9
Construction
Parking	Available, free.
Accessible	Yes
History
Opened	1922
Rebuilt	2012
Electrified	2014
Services

Gemas railway station is a Malaysian railway station located at the eastern side of and named after the town of Gemas, Tampin District, Negeri Sembilan. Built in 1922, the station is the meeting point of and the railway junction connecting the West Coast Line (Padang Besar–Singapore) with the East Coast Line (Tumpat–Gemas).

As part of the Seremban–Gemas double tracking and electrification, the tracks were realigned and a new station building was built adjacent to the old station building. The old station building, platforms and a section of the railway tracks have been spared demolition and preserved.

Location and locality

The station is located at exactly the town centre of Gemas, a small town which is part of Tampin district of Negeri Sembilan, and locates the Negeri Sembilan state border with Johor. The town itself is situated on the trunk route of Federal Route 1, providing connectivity to other major town north and south of the route.

As currently the town is the terminus of the electrified sector of the West Coast Line and the ETS service of the line, it also attracts passengers from Segamat and towns in between in Johor given that Segamat itself is not very far from Gemas.

History

The original Gemas station was constructed sometime in 1922 as a hub for trains from Penang, Seremban, and Kuala Lumpur. The station also houses a railyard to store active motive power and rolling stock, the railyard also has another function as well: a scrapyard for old, broken down motive power and rolling stock to be scrapped off as cheap metal.

Its function as a junction between the West Coast railway line up to Padang Besar and East Coast railway line up to Tumpat made it very popular to passengers as trains will stop for a certain long period to transfer goods and passengers between both routes, before continuing their journey. Passenger intending to change trains between both routes also alighted here for their next train.

The old station was closed in 2015 as a new building next to it was built to accommodate electrifying of West Coast route and also the subsequent ETS extension, with the station became the southernmost station of electrified railway for the time being. The old station building was later converted as a hawker place and later parts of it converted into a railway museum.

KTM Komuter

Between October 2015 and June 2016 KTM Komuter also served the stretch between Seremban and this station.^[1] However, passengers to Kuala Lumpur, Batu Caves or Tanjung Malim are required to switch trains at Seremban then. Following a rescheduling exercise in June 2016 the shuttle service was cut short and ended at Pulau Sebang/Tampin, removing Gemas and Batang Melaka from the line. Direct trains all the way to Tanjung Malim (and later to Batu Caves) was established from Pulau Sebang/Tampin station and passengers were no longer required to change trains at Seremban. However, both Gemas and Batang Melaka were no longer included in the Seremban Line.

KTM ETS

On 10 October 2015 KTM ETS services were extended to Gemas. The station remains the southernmost terminus of the service until the electrification and double tracking project of the Johor part of the railway is done.

Train services

KTM ETS^[2]
- ETS Gold Train No. 9420/9425 Padang Besar–Gemas
- ETS Premium Train No. 9204/9371 Butterworth–Gemas
KTM Intercity^[2]
- Ekspres Selatan Train No. 40/42/44 JB Sentral–Gemas
- Ekspres Selatan Train No. 41/43/45 Gemas–JB Sentral
- Ekspres Rakyat Timuran Train No. 26/27 Tumpat–JB Sentral

Gallery

View of the new Gemas Railway Station which was constructed as part of the Seremban-Gemas Double Tracking and Electrification Project.
Platforms of the new Gemas Railway Station.
Platforms of the new Gemas Railway Station with a KTM ETS train.
View of the waiting area and ticketing counter of the new Gemas Railway Station.
Notice of closure of the KTM Komuter Shuttle Service to/from Batang Melaka railway station and Gemas. images captured at the KTM Pulau Sebang (Tampin) train station.
View of the entrance of the old Gemas Railway Station, prior to the construction of the new station.
View looking north from the Gemas station prior to reconstruction under the Seremban-Gemas Double Tracking and Electrification Project. Left, the main line to Kuala Lumpur. Right, the Jungle Line to Tumpat, Kelantan.