On 10 th October 2019, 90 members of Women in Rail Malaysiaand invited university joined the Ministry of Transport to ride on the new Electric Train Service 2 (ETS2) train from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh. ETS2 was launched by the Sultan of Perak, Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah, who rode the Business Class coach to Ipoh from the Kuala Lumpur Old Station. He was accompanied by his consort, Raja Permaisuri Perak Tuanku Zara Salim, for the two-and-a-half-hour train journey.
Also present were, Transport Minister YB Anthony Loke, his deputy, Dato’ Haji Kamaruddin Jaafar,Perak Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu and his spouse, Dr Nomee Ashikin Mohammed Radzi. There were 200 guests in total from the Transport Ministry, Railway Assets Corp (RAC), KTMB, Women in Rail, and the media on this historic train ride from Kuala Lumpur to Ipoh. Sultan Nazrin signed an official plaque as part of the soft launch of the ETS2 before boarding the train, which departed at about 2pm.
During the journey, Perak Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu and his wife, Dr Nomee Ashikin Mohammed Radzi mingled with students from UniKL, MAHSA and UPM. Perak Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu and his spouse, Dr Nomee Ashikin Mohammed Radzi came over to coaches D & E to meet and greet the members. They were very happy and impressed to meet the students and inquired them on their studies and universities. Shortly after, Raja Permaisuri Perak Tuanku Zara Salim came to meet the students as well. She encouraged the
students to take up engineering and to become professionals of the rail industry. Ms.Natasha Zulkifli, the Founder Director of Women in Rail Malaysia was happy to share all about Women in Rail Malaysia with Raja Permaisuri Perak Tuanku Zara Salim. The students and the members felt very privileged by Tuanku Zara’s visit and took many pictures with her as a remembrance and to cherish the special moment.
On board, the members were given a briefing by KTMB & CRCC on the train’s facilities, such as the train design and the facilities for those with special needs. The university students also had a knowledge sharing session conducted by the WIR Members in collaboration with the technical team from Mott MacDonald Malaysia
Ms.Natasha Zulkifli, the Founder Director of Women in Rail Malaysia gave an opening keynote to the members on the train and informed them of the activities that WIR MY have carried out and yet to carry out in the year 2019 and also encouraged them to join Women in Rail Malaysia and benefit from it. Thereafter, the students and the members were briefed on the technical scope of the rail industry by Mr.Matthew
Oakley, the Technical Director from Mott MacDonald Malaysia. He brought along 6 Malaysian rail engineers and they spoke about their career paths in the rail industry as well as key features and the alignment design of the train, design review process, quality control, inspection of train during manufacturing and also about the final certification process.
Thereafter, Ms. Fazrin Azrimi, a member of Women in Rail Malaysia delivered a speech on the non-technical side of the rail industry and shared her life story as a rail professional and her work experience to the students. The students listened to both the sessions attentively and asked many questions to the presenters and transformed the sessions into an interactive one. The trip to Ipoh on the ETS 2 was both memorable and educational to the Women in Rail members especially to the university students. Women in Rail Malaysia is committed to creating and promoting great learning experiences to inspire Malaysian students to become lifelong learners, and encourage them to pursue an all-round
education. Women in Rail Malaysia firmly believes that the student’s involvement in such activities will not only expose them to future career options, but also ensure that the Malaysian rail industry of tomorrow is a more diverse and dynamic one.