The first of 13 Class 61 inter-regional diesel multiple-units for services along Malaysia’s east coast corridor has been largely completed at [Chinese rolling stock manufacturer] CRRC Zhuzhou’s plant in China. The DMUs have been designated Class 61 by KTMB.
CRRC is producing two of the trains in Zhuzhou before transferring production of the remaining 11 to a local assembly plant in Perak state. The first trainset is expected to be handed over to national operator KTMB by early July. After a period of testing, it is due to enter commercial service in October.
The four-car, 1 000 mm gauge DMUs have a design speed of 140 km/h and are expected to operate at up to 120 km/h. They are being equipped with CRRC’s own design of graphene-based supercapacitor for storing braking energy and two MAN powerpacks.