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Kota Kinabalu: The rail service between here and Beaufort which has been disrupted for quite sometime for improvement works on the tracks will fully resume on Feb. 21.State Railways General Manager, Hj Mohd Zain Hj Mohd Said, said to commemorate the resumption of service, the rides would be free until Feb.

27. However, commuters will still have to take the free tickets from the counters being boarding the train. "From Feb 28, there will be promotional rates until the officiating ceremony end of March," he stated.

He added there will be six services between Tanjung Aru and Beaufort as follows:

l 6.10am - Papar-Secretariat (Sembulan)

l 5.10 pm - Secretariat-Papar

l 7.45 am - Tg Aru-Beaufort

l 11.01am - Beaufort-Tg Aru

l 1.40 pm - Tg Aru-Beaufort

l 4.30 pm - Beaufort-Tg Aru

From Beaufort, commuters can continue their journey onto Tenom.

The entire Tg Aru-Tenom trip will take 2 hours and 15 minutes and the coaches will run at a speed of 80km per hour compared to 50km previously.

There will be a total of 14 stations between Sembulan and Tenom, namely: Secretariat-Tg Aru-Putatan-Kinarut-Kawang-Papar-Kimanis-Bongawan-Membakut-Beaufort-Saliwangan Baru-Halogilat-Rayoh-Pangi-Tenom.

Meanwhile, Hj Zain said the railway service was introduced in Sabah (then North Borneo) by the then British North Borneo Chartered Company Limited.

"The first railway track, a distance of 32 km, was laid in 1896 and completed in 1990 , linking Weston and Beaufort.

"On 1 August 1914, the State Railway Service was instituted vide the North Borneo Ordinance Chapter 116 (North Borneo Railway)," he said.

He added that the purpose of building the railway was in line with the growth of the rubber and tobacco industry which flourished in Interior towns such as Melalap, Tenom and Beaufort.

"These agricultural produce were then transported to Kota Kinabalu (then Jesselton) by rail for export to other countries," he said.

He added that although road communications in Sabah has vastly improved since then, the 134 km Tg Aru-Tenom line still has a role to play especially in areas such as Saliwangan, Halogilat, Rayoh and Pangi which are inaccessible by road.