KL Sentral

Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station (KL Sentral) is a transit-oriented development that houses the main railway station of Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Opened on 16 April 2001, KL Sentral replaced the old Kuala Lumpur railway station as the city's main inter-city railway station. KL Sentral is the largest railway station in Malaysia, and also in Southeast Asia from 2001 to 2021, before Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal in Bangkok, Thailand was completed.

KL Sentral is designed as an intermodal transport hub. All of Kuala Lumpur's passenger rail lines serve KL Sentral except the Ampang line, Sri Petaling line, Shah Alam line and Putrajaya line. Many intercity trains serving Peninsular Malaysia start here. All the railway components of the scheme have been completed. It was also designed to be a new business and financial hub for Kuala Lumpur.

Overview

KL Sentral refers to the entire of development built on the former Keretapi Tanah Melayu marshalling yard in Brickfields. The development includes the transport hub, hotels, office towers, condominiums and shopping malls and was expected to be completed in 2015. Designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, this station uses Malay, English and Japanese languages signs as a tribute.

KL Sentral has been divided into 14 land parcels, each representing a different function. Some of these lots have been fully constructed and are already in use, while others are either in the process of being built, or are still awaiting development, according to the phased programme.

KL Sentral is being developed by a consortium made up of Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad ( MRCB), Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) and Pembinaan Redzai Sdn Bhd.

History

Kuala Lumpur Sentral station stands on the site of the former Malayan Railway's marshalling yard called the Central Railroad Repair Shops. In the Second World War during the Japanese occupation of Malaya, the yard was the target of the Allies' 1945 bombing of Kuala Lumpur. The yard was targeted twice, on 19 February 1945 and 10 March 1945. The second bombing raid also damaged a nearby museum.

In 1994, with the objective of enhancing Kuala Lumpur city's public transport, the Government of Malaysia awarded a contract to a consortium to transform at the old railway marshalling yard into a modern transit hub within a self-contained urban development. The consortium, led by Malaysian Resources Corp Bhd (MRCB), appointed architect Kisho Kurokawa and Associates, who also designed the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), to design the master plan for the entire development.

In July 2010, a number two trains crashed into each other. One was an airport bound train and the other was a parked train. The crash injured three people.

In early August 2019, KL Sentral was one of the locations affected by two online bomb threats posted on Twitter; the other being the Russian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. These threats were posted via a hacked account by an individual calling himself "limzhengyan"; as a result the Malaysian police carried out a search on those locations and determined that the threats were hoaxes, although coincidentally on the same day an incomplete improvised explosive device was found at the Bukit Damansara area.

Starting from 29 May 2023, KL Sentral LRT station officially rebranded as KL Sentral - redONE. The partnership is part of a five-year station naming rights agreement between Prasarana Integrated Development and redONE, the largest mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in ASEAN.

Development zones

The KL Sentral development area is divided into several plots of land, each with a specific development purpose. All constructions were scheduled to be completed by 2015.

Office zones

Office zones in KL Sentral account for more than 50% of the total land area. The developer intends that KL Sentral will ultimately be the business and financial hub of Kuala Lumpur.

Lot A: CIMB Headquarters (Menara CIMB)

Lot A will be the new headquarters for CIMB Group which is located facing the National Museum. As of June 2011, the new headquarters' name which appears on the construction site is ''Menara CIMB'' (CIMB Tower). The company acquired the land in July 2008, and construction is expected to begin in Q4 2007 and complete in 2011. It is unknown how many floors there will be but it should have around of office space available.

Lot M: Plaza Sentral

Lot M or Plaza Sentral is a completed office complex in the west of KL Sentral. The complex was completed in two stages.

*Phase I was completed in June 2001, comprising three blocks and total gross floor area of . Offering prestigious office suites, Plaza Sentral was sold and quickly taken up by multinationals and Malaysian companies alike, eager to take advantage of the global connectivity and convenience of working in KL Sentral. Its take-up rate is reaching 100%.
*Phase II was launched in September 2003 due to the escalating demand for premium office space. It has since been fully taken up. Comprising two towers – 18-storey and 26-storey – made up of four blocks and a total gross floor area of , the building was completed in 2006. Tenants include British Telecom and Maxis Communications.
*Sentral Tower, a purpose-built 30-storey office tower, was sold to Lembaga Tabung Haji for RM161.46mil in March 2004.
*Plaza Sentral has a basement parking lot.

Lot J: Sooka Sentral & 4 Office Towers

Lot J is a development lot for four 35-storey office towers of identical architecture.

Lot J was sold to United Engineers (M) Bhd (UEM) in May 2005 with plans for four towers. Tower A was built by UEM for its corporate headquarters called '' Mercu UEM'' on the prime piece of land with a gross floor area of . Tower B will be an office tower for the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority. Tower C was built by Quill Realty Sdn Bhd and sold to Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM) for its corporate headquarters. Tower D is an office building built by Quill, named Quill 7.

A development on Lot J is the six-storey lifestyle centre which houses a fitness and spa centre, business centre, food court, restaurants and alfresco dining facilities. This development, called Sooka Sentral, opened its doors in December 2007.

Lot N: 1 Sentral Tower

1 Sentral Tower is an office tower, offering a gross floor area of . Construction was completed in 2007. It houses companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, MRCB and General Electric.

Others

Lot B has been proposed as a financial area for KL Sentral. No construction has taken place.

Lot F is planned for a future office block. Currently, the base is used for a furniture exhibition mall and Food and Beverage (F&B) centre.

Entertainment zones

Lot E will be a hub for entertainment and convention centre. The deck of this development has been completed.

Lot G: NU Sentral

Lot G, located in the south of KL Sentral consist of shopping complex, office block, serviced apartments, and a three-star hotel. NU Sentral is the shopping mall in the area, and directly acts as a pathway between Stesen Sentral and the KL Sentral monorail station. Development works commenced in 2008 and was completed in 2014. The land was previously used as a parking lot and a short-cut for pedestrians from Brickfields and the KL Sentral Monorail station to KL Sentral proper.

In January 2008, MRCB set up a joint venture company with Pelaburan Hartanah Bumiputera Bhd (PHBB) named Jewel Surprises Sdn Bhd to develop the area. The new company will hold a lease on the plot of land for 99 years.

Transport hub

Lot H: Stesen Sentral

Stesen Sentral () is the name of Lot H, which is the designated transport hub within the KL Sentral development project, although both the public and connected transit lines generally refer to the station itself as "KL Sentral".

Stesen Sentral, designed to house six rail networks, was completed in December 2000 and the rail, retail and food and beverage operations began in April 2001. Standing on , the main building has a gross floor area of and the specifications were based on passenger projections up to the year 2020, which was when Malaysia aspired to be a fully developed nation.

In 2008, Stesen Sentral registered over 100,000 passengers daily, which translates into 36.5 million people a year.

The station has a parking lot for visitors and people working around the KL Sentral area.

Rail services

KL Sentral is served by the following services:
* Express Rail Link (ERL): airport rail link to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)
** KLIA Ekspres: non-stop express trains to KLIA T1 and KLIA T2 stations.
** KLIA Transit: commuter-style trains to KLIA that also calls at all stations in between, i.e. Bandar Tasik Selatan, Putrajaya/Cyberjaya (Putrajaya Sentral), and Salak Tinggi.
* KTM Komuter: Commuter trains serving the Klang Valley region
** Batu Caves–Pulau Sebang Line: Batu Caves – Pulau Sebang/Tampin
** Tanjung Malim–Port Klang Line: Tanjung Malim – Port Klang
** KL Sentral-Terminal Skypark Line: KL Sentral – Terminal Skypark (Suspended)
* KTM Electric Train Service (ETS): Intercity trains to Segamat, Ipoh, Butterworth, and Padang Besar
*Rapid KL: Light rapid transit (LRT) service
** Kelana Jaya Line: Putra Heights – Gombak
(Note: the Kelana Jaya Line station is branded as KL Sentral - redONE due to sponsorship reasons.)

=KL City Air Terminal (KL CAT)

=
KL City Air Terminal is located at the eastern and western ends of the station building and was opened on 14 April 2002 together with the KLIA Ekspres. Designed as an "Airport Terminal in the City", KL CAT is an IATA-indexed station and is assigned with the IATA code XKL.

As of October 2023, passengers flying Malaysia Airlines and Batik Air can check-in their baggage at KL CAT before boarding a KLIA Ekspres train to Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

KL CAT is divided into two halls:

* KL CAT Departure Hall is located at the western end of the station building and houses the check-in counters, ticketing counters, and faregates to access KLIA Ekspres departure platform.
* KL CAT Arrival Hall is located at the eastern end of the station building and houses the exit faregates from KLIA Ekspres arrival platform. The linkway that connects to Muzium Negara for the MRT Kajang Line is also located at this hall.

When KL CAT was built, there were plans to offer through checked baggage service from KLIA to KL CAT where checked baggage of passengers arriving at KLIA would be conveyed to KL CAT and collected by passengers at KL CAT. However, these plans have not materialised.

Connecting rail services

The following lines have stations located within the vicinity of KL Sentral complex:

* KL Monorail: KL Sentral Monorail station at Jalan Tun Sambanthan can be accessed via NU Sentral shopping mall located adjacent to KL Sentral complex.
* MRT Kajang Line: Muzium Negara MRT station at Jalan Damansara can be accessed via a underground walkway from the KL Sentral complex.

Connecting stations

KL Sentral Monorail station

The KL Sentral monorail station stands on Jalan Tun Sambanthan in Brickfields, behind the NU Sentral shopping mall. The station acts as a terminating stop for the KL Monorail line. It is directly connected to NU Sentral which allows for uninterrupted walking between Stesen Sentral and the monorail station.

The monorail station is also equipped with new ticket vending machines, ticketing gates as well as a new Customer Service Office. Tactile paving for the visually impaired is also provided beginning from NU Sentral. The completion of the overhead bridge now enables customers to travel between KL Sentral and the monorail station safely and conveniently.
The station uses the Spanish solution, having one rail line with a platform on each side, for passengers embarking and disembarking the train separately.

Before NU Sentral was built, passengers who wanted to move from the monorail station to Stesen Sentral and vice versa had to walk through the busy Jalan Tun Sambanthan.

The monorail and LRT stations are not the interchange station or out-of-station interchange stations. The commuter will be charged 2 single-way journey fares instead of integrated fares whenever using these connecting stations.

Muzium Negara MRT station

Due to space constraints, an MRT station could not be built in the Stesen Sentral area, therefore an MRT station had to be built in front of the nearby National Museum to allow connections to Stesen Sentral. The Muzium Negara MRT station opened on 17 July 2017, along with the underground footbridge that connects the MRT station to the main KL Sentral building.

KL Sentral bus hub

KL Sentral has also been made a city bus hub by Rapid KL as part of its bus network revamp. It is the bus hub for city shuttle and trunk bus routes.

Buses to Singapore and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport also operate from KL Sentral, while most other bus operators go near KL Sentral along Jalan Tun Sambanthan. Also, a hop-on/hop-off tourist bus stop is located between Hilton and the station. Traveling by bus to Genting Highlands is also available here.

Bus services

=From KL Sentral

=
*: Bandar Utama bus hub – KL Sentral
*: Pusat Bandar Damansara MRT station – KL Sentral
*: Parliament of Malaysia – KL Sentral (Only available during meeting session)

=From Pasar Seni / Kotaraya / Lebuh Pudu

=
*: Putrajaya Sentral – Lebuh Pudu bus hub (Lebuh Pudu-bound only)
*: Puchong Utama – Pasar Seni
*: Putra Perdana – Pasar Seni
*: Puchong Prima – Pasar Seni
*: Saujana Puchong – Pasar Seni
*: Taman Sri Sentosa / Sri Manja – Pasar Seni
*: Subang Jaya station – Pasar Seni
*: Taman Desa – Pasar Seni
*: Taman OUG – Pasar Seni via Awan Besar LRT station
*: Awan Besar LRT station – Pasar Seni
*: Flat Enggang Kinrara – Pasar Seni
*: Port Klang – Pasar Seni via KL Sentral
*: UiTM Section 2, Shah Alam – Pasar Seni
*: Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam – Pasar Seni
*: Subang Mewah, USJ 1 – Pasar Seni
*: Subang Suria – Pasar Seni
*: Kota Damansara – Pasar Seni
*: Taman Medan / Taman Sri Manja – Pasar Seni
*: Petaling Jaya Old Town – Pasar Seni
*: Pantai Hillpark – Pasar Seni
*: Bangsar Park – Pasar Seni
*: Pasar Seni – Kompleks Mahkamah, Jalan Duta
*: Subang Mewah, USJ 1 – Pasar Seni via New Pantai Expressway (NPE)
*: Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam – Pasar Seni via New Pantai Expressway (NPE)

Hotels and residential zones

Lot C: St. Regis Hotel

Lot C houses the St. Regis Hotel Kuala Lumpur. The luxurious hotel consists of 208 rooms and suites started its operation in May 2016.

Lot D: The Sentral Residences

Lot D consists of two 55-storey residential towers called The Sentral Residences that overlooks the Lake Gardens and the city. Jointly developed by MRCB, CapitaLand and Quill Group, construction was completed in 2015.

Lot I : Hilton KL & Le Méridien Hotels

Lot I consists of two skyscraper hotels occupied by Hilton Kuala Lumpur and Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur, owned by Daito Asia Development Sdn. Bhd. and Daisho Asia Development Sdn. Bhd. respectively. The hotels opened for business in September and October 2004 respectively.

Lot K and L: Suasana Sentral and Suasana Sentral Loft

Lot K is the location of a serviced apartment, Suasana Sentral. Suasana Sentral consists of two blocks, or 400 units of apartments. It was completed in 2002 and is fully sold and occupied, with about 40% of the buyers coming from the international community.

The second phase of condominiums on Lot L, Suasana Sentral Loft was launched in early 2005 and began occupancy in early 2008. The 37 and 38-storey apartment towers have a total of 600 units. All have been sold.

See also

* Kuala Lumpur railway station
* KLIA Ekspres
* KLIA Transit
*Keretapi Tanah Melayu
* Kelana Jaya line
*KL Monorail
* Public transport in Kuala Lumpur
* Transportation in Kuala Lumpur

References

External links

KL CATKuala Lumpur Sentral Station redevelopment
News and information about the station redevelopment.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuala Lumpur Sentral Railway Station
Express Rail Link
Kelana Jaya Line
KTM ETS railway stations
Kuala Lumpur Monorail stations
Railway stations in Kuala Lumpur
Rapid transit stations in Kuala Lumpur
Port Klang Line
Transit-oriented developments
Tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur
Railway stations in Malaysia opened in 2001