“Passengers who opted not to continue their journeys can get a full refund of their train fares. We request that they email their applications to [email protected],” it said in a statement.

KTMB said the incident was caused by the railway power line suddenly breaking apart, which also meant that the train captain could not announce the issue to passengers.

It said the crew then went to each coach to inform passengers of the problem, while text messages were also sent to those on board.

“A helper locomotive was deployed but failed to ‘save’ the stranded ETS train, so a transfer of passengers to the helper ETS train had to be done, assisted by crew members and KTMB staff deployed to the location.

“Passengers were also served refreshments when they arrived at the Bukit Mertajam and Butterworth stations,” it said, adding that a probe is ongoing to determine what caused the break in the power line.

KTMB apologised again to passengers who had been affected by the incident.

Some ETS passengers had taken to social media to air their frustrations over the breakdown, which purportedly left those onboard stranded for over four hours without air-conditioning or food to break their fast on the eve of Aidilfitri.