Sultan drives train from JB to Kluang

In another rare feat, the sultan of Johor personally took control of a train for his journey from JB Sentral here to Kluang yesterday.

It was Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar's fifth time at the controls of a train.

"Preparations have been made for the past one month and I am prepared physically and mentally. I am happy and not feeling nervous at all," he said when met by the media and well-wishers yesterday.

The ruler did some revision in the driver's compartment before the train left the station at 2.30pm.

The train had seven coaches, with 150 passengers onboard. The entire journey took about two hours and 15 minutes.

Along the journey, the Kuala Lumpur-bound train stopped in Kempas, Kulai and Kluang.

The first time Sultan Ibrahim commandeered a train was on July 1, 2011.

It was the last train out from the Tanjong Pagar railway station in Singapore before the historical station closed.

Trains and railways have always held a special place for the state ruler as it was his great-grandfather, the late Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Abu Bakar who opened the Causeway, which was designed for both road and rail link between Singapore and Malaya in 1923.

- NST