The high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Singapore will remain on the drawing board. This will not have been the sea serpent, but the land snake of the Malaysia and Singapore. This ambitious high-speed train projecte covering the 350 km between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in an hour and a half had already been envisaged in the late 90s. This is a huge step forward, given that it currently takes five hours to travel by road. Or more than six hours by traditional train.
From then on, several routes would link Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, including an express route with a single stop in Johor Bahru, the large Malaysian city on the border. Others also made stops in Putrajaya - Malaysia's administrative capital - and Seremban.
Procrastination from the outset
In 2010, former Malaysian Prime Minister Nasjib Razak announced the project, then confirmed it in 2013. The two governments finally signed the Memorandum of Understanding in 2016, along with the cost and route study.
But the return to power of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 2018 resulted in a further halt to the future high-speed line. While reducing Malaysia's debt was the official pretext, it is thought that Mahathir's deep-seated enmity with Singapore was a major factor.
After obtaining an agreement to reduce costs, Malaysia and Singapore finally launched the project. But with one major change: opening date pushed back from 2026 to 2031.
In 2020, the covid crisis also affected the project. The closure of the borders prevented the first groundbreaking ceremony from taking place.
Unable to agree on the terms and conditions for starting work, the project lapsed on 1 January 2021, according to the MoU signed by the two countries in 2016. None of the protagonists will have tried to save the project from sinking.
Completion of a high-speed rail network on the scale of the Asian continent
However, this suspension will have repercussions beyond the two countries. The future high-speed line was to connect with ufuture high-speed line linking Malaysia to Bangkok and beyond to Laos and China. For the time being, the dream of a high-speed rail network in South-East Asia, similar to that in Europe, has been dashed.
In an interview with Channel News Asia, Walter Theseira, Associate Professor of Economics at Singapore's University of Social Sciences, regretted the decision.
" The overall objective of the LGV was to improve the economic competitiveness of Singapore and Malaysia. As the two economies are not large in size, a high-speed rail link between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur would have brought more economic growth and development, in the same way that a high-speed rail link between Malaysia and Singapore would have brought more economic growth and development, in the same way that a high-speed rail link between Malaysia and Singapore would have brought more economic growth and development. Japan has benefited from the connectivity created by the Shinkansen for its major cities" he explained to the channel.
Malaysia will finally go it alone on a semi high-speed line from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahrunear the Singapore border. Travellers to the financial capital of ASEAN will have to find their own way, or take the plane...
