Click here to visit the new dedicated Hat Yai – Padang Besar Shuttle Train information page.
Train services between Padang Besar (Malaysia) and Hat Yai (Thailand) will be enhanced from 22 December 2015 with 2 new pairs of shuttle trains. SRT will operate a 2-car Daewoo DMU for this shuttle train.
All trains including the Peninsular Express and International Express will stop at the new Padang Besar (Thai) station in Thailand, and the existing stop at Khlong Ngae.
The updated timetable with the new shuttle trains can be found here. The new shuttle trains are timed to match connecting ETS services to and from Butterworth, Ipoh, Sentral Kuala Lumpur and/or Gemas.
Click here to visit the new dedicated Hat Yai – Padang Besar Shuttle Train information page.
Hi,
I would like to pass on a WARNING regarding making a connection between the Thai train system and the Malaysian ETS train at Padang Besar.
A few days ago my wife and I were in Hat Yai where we stayed overnight in anticipation of taking the fast train from Padang Besar to Kuala Lumpur at 9:30 AM (Malaysian time). We had previously purchased tickets for the ETS train online.
There is a Thai shuttle train that leaves Hat Yai at 7:30 AM and goes to Padang Besar. The duration of the trip is 50 minutes and it is scheduled to arrive at Padang Besar at 8:25AM Thai time) . This is 9:25AM in Malaysia.
Although the shuttle was scheduled to arrive at the station 5 minutes before the ETS train left I had mistakenly assumed that there would some kind of arrangement made so that people from the Thai shuttle would be able to transfer to the ETS train. i.e. the ETS train would delay its departure for a minute or two so the people from the shuttle could get on. In actual fact, as we arrived in Padang Besar on the shuttle we could see the ETS train leaving the station. Had the shuttle been perfectly on schedule we probably still would have missed the connection because I doubt that we could have cleared. Malaysian immigration/customs in time.
Actually, the Thai shuttle train was about 10 minutes late. I had been talking to a Thai fellow on the platform who frequently took the shuttle from Hat Yai to another stop before Padang Besar he told me that the train was usually a bit delayed. So it appears that it is highly unlikely to make the connection between the shuttle and the ETS train. I think that it would be doing a service to include this information on your web-site.
The afternoon before I had researched whether the connection could be made and didn’t find any definitive information with the exception of one website (forget which) that said the connection was possible. Thank you.
David Miller
If you click the link provided in this post, and access the timetable there, I have clearly stated in the timetable to not use the connection that you mentioned.