Malaysia’s East Coast rail promises bigger economic pie for Pahang, but questions remain

KUANTAN – Outside cafe Kula Cakes, a queue forms on a sidewalk in Jalan Besar in Kuantan’s old town as customers – many from outside Pahang – wait for a slice of its mango cheesecake, even on a sweltering Thursday afternoon.

For owners Farisha Mazlan and Wan Aman Wan Ishak, business has been brisk.

“A lot of our customers are from outside Pahang. It gets very busy on weekends,” said Ms Farisha, adding that in the 13 years since they opened the shop, Kuantan’s cafe scene has grown into an attraction on its own.

“People travel to Kuantan just to hop between the cafes along Jalan Besar; it’s interesting.”

The owners are already looking ahead to something bigger: the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL), set to begin operations in January 2027, linking Kuala Lumpur to the east coast towns of Kuantan, Kuala Terengganu and Kota Bharu.

Across Pahang, the 665km rail project is expected to redraw the state’s economic map – long anchored to its South China Sea coast – by pulling activity farther inland, even beyond businesses by the sea such as Kula Cakes.

Despite being the largest state in peninsular Malaysia, Pahang contributes only about 5 per cent to the national economy. State leaders and businesses are betting that the ECRL will help unlock growth beyond coastal hubs centred on the state capital, Kuantan.

Pahang’s construction boom

Home to more than half a million people, Kuantan, on the South China Sea, is the largest city on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia and has long drawn visitors from the Klang Valley via the East Coast Expressway.

Once overshadowed by oil and gas towns such as Kertih and Kemaman in neighbouring Terengganu, the city is now seeing a construction boom driven in part by the rail project.

But the ECRL station sits about 10km inland, away from the bustle of old Kuantan, in the new township of KotaSAS, a planned administrative centre that functions as a “mini Putrajaya” for Pahang.

Around it, development is accelerating. A state mosque capable of accommodating 8,000 worshippers is nearing completion, while the state’s administrative complex – designed in the shape of Pahang’s coat of arms – has been occupied since 2023.

Announced a decade ago, the ECRL is the first mega project on the peninsular east coast – a region long overshadowed by federal focus on the more densely populated west.

At its core, the line will connect Kuantan Port to Port Klang, creating a land bridge between the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca, potentially shaving up to two days off cargo delivery time by bypassing the Singapore Strait.

While Kuantan’s port, the Gebeng industrial zone and Pekan’s assembly plants making Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz cars are clear beneficiaries, those farther inland are betting the rail line will finally draw activity away from the coast.

Among them are the folk in Temerloh, a town in Pahang that prides itself as the geographic centre of peninsular Malaysia.

Trains are not new to Temerloh. The town has been served for 90 years by the Mentakab station on KTM’s old east coast line, which runs from Gemas in Negeri Sembilan to Tumpat in Kelantan, cutting through the dense jungles of Pahang along the spine of the peninsula – earning it the nickname “Jungle Train”.

But instead of driving economic activity, the single-track, diesel-run service caters largely to rural communities and tourists seeking a glimpse of old Malaya.

“We already get a lot of tourists, because from here you can go north to Taman Negara (national park), or visit the many waterfalls around here,” said Mr Akmal Zamri, who owns a cafe in the town centre.

“Soon when it’s summer, we will see a lot of foreign tourists too.”

Tourism – largely in retail, hotels and dining – makes up almost half of Pahang’s economy, underscoring how much the state still depends on visitor flows rather than on industrial activity.

But the ECRL has already triggered a construction boom, with the sector growing 12 per cent between 2023 and 2024, according to the latest available figures.

In Temerloh and Mentakab, new housing projects are already advertising their proximity to the ECRL station as a selling point, even before details of the service are available.

Speaking to The Straits Times at Mr Akmal’s cafe, a customer said she knew of a man and his wife in Temerloh who commute daily to and from Kuala Lumpur for work – a return journey on motorcycle of more than 300km.

“I’m not sure why they do that instead of moving to KL,” the customer said. “Maybe they’ll take the ECRL when it starts.”

Mr Akmal added that many young people from Temerloh still have to find jobs in Kuala Lumpur due to the lack of opportunities locally.

“Not even Kuantan can offer good jobs,” he said.

The journey from Gombak in KL to Kota Bharu can be completed in four hours and 45 minutes. By road, the same trip typically takes around six hours and can stretch to more than 12 hours during festive periods and long weekends.

Competition for seats on the ECRL

While it has been heavily promoted as a cure for decades of poor connectivity between the east coast towns and KL, the ECRL is designed primarily for cargo.

More than 300,000 cars use the East Coast Highway daily on peak days of the festive seasons, leading to massive congestion.

In February, during a preview of the ECRL, the most common questions from the public were about ticket prices and service frequency.

In April, Pahang Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail said the people of Pahang could end up being mere bystanders due to the line’s stated 70-30 split between cargo and passenger service.

According to him, each of the ECRL trains can carry only 400 passengers, and given that the ECRL also connects Kuala Lumpur to Terengganu and Kelantan, the people of Pahang will face stiff competition for a seat.

“With only 400 seats, I worry that the people of Pahang will end up just watching the ECRL trains because the tickets are sold out,” he said at the Malaysia East Coast Trade and Entrepreneur Expo 2026 in Kuantan.

“I will raise this to the ECRL side and I hope to meet them soon.”

Despite these concerns, some point to the success of the KTM Electric Train Service (ETS), which has modernised rail travel along the west coast of peninsular Malaysia.

The southern stretch of the ETS, launched in December 2025, has brought renewed attention to towns like Kluang in Johor, which have seen a rise in visitors from all over Malaysia since the service began. Local shops have told the media that business is booming.

Self-described foodie Eugene Kong said the ECRL could similarly open up towns like Bentong and Temerloh to visitors who might not otherwise have considered them.

“People in KL already visit Janda Baik, Genting Highlands and Bukit Tinggi regularly and they love it. The ECRL will push them out farther,” he added.

“Pahang has many good food that will draw visitors. It is still an untapped foodie destination.”

He noted that winding roads through the Titiwangsa range have long deterred visitors, but the rail line could make journeys smoother and safer.

Part of overcoming that terrain involves extensive tunnelling, including the 16km Genting tunnel – the longest rail tunnel in South-east Asia.

“Frankly, I feel like those bridges and tunnels are the hard part,” Mr Kong said. “The operational part can be fine-tuned as we go along.”