Malaysia studying global projects for best model for its high speed rail development

By Sharen Kaur

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia High-Speed Rail Corp (myHSR) Sdn Bhd is looking at high-speed rail (HSR) projects around the world to come up with the best proposal for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR. Chief executive officer Mohd Nur Ismail Mohamed Kamal said the company was studying the US$68 billion (RM293 billion) California bullet train project, the 370km Las Vegas-Los Angeles railway network and the London-Birmingham Railway. 

In addition, it is also looking at the Haramain link in Saudi Arabia and the Beijing-Moscow network, which is expected to be the world’s longest HSR line. The United Kingdom government plans to invest more than £70 billion (RM459 billion) in all forms of transport by 2021. High Speed 2 (HS2) is part of this and accounts for £16 billion of the overall investment. HS2 will link eight of Britain’s 10 largest cities, serving one in five of the country’s population. 

The Haramain HSR project, meanwhile, links the holy cities of Mecca and Madinah via Jeddah and the King Abdullah Economic City. The 450km railway is estimated to cost 37.5 billion Saudi riyal (RM43 billion). Mohd Nur Ismail said the company and the Public Land Transport Commission had been studying the projects in the last few months and visited the sites. 

“We studied delivery approaches for the HSR project, cross-border operations, and the operating structure, among others. In the UK, they have different operators running on the lines. We are studying the pros and cons and merits of running such a structure. “We are looking at the business model of HS2 and are in discussions with the operator. We find it interesting that HS2, from the start, hired a very few key people and have been able to operate at a low cost. “We also met Euro Star on how they operate the London-Paris route. All its trains traverse the Channel Tunnel between the UK and France, owned and operated separately by Eurotunnel. Their service also runs on High Speed 1 (HSI) in southern England. The French and Belgian parts of the network are shared with Paris-Brussels Thalys services and also with TGV (high-speed) trains. We want to know how they manage all these,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Mohd Nur Ismail said the bilateral agreement for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR was expected to be signed in the first quarter of next year. Once the agreement is signed, the company will call for open tenders in batches for systems, track and civil works, among others. “The key thing now is still the G2G (government-to-government) negotiations with both the governments on the operation aspect of the HSR, security, project structure as well as Customs and immigration. We have to come up with the bilateral agreement so we can move forward,” he said. He said the biggest cost for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR would be civil infrastructure, including the building of tracks, tunnels, bridges and stations. “It would take up between 65 and 70 per cent of the total cost for the project,” he said. Around 30 per cent of the total cost would be for rolling stocks, systems and manpower. The final cost, he said, would depend on the choice of technology, alignment and how the HSR is linked to Singapore. “Both countries will tender out separately the civil infrastructure contracts. As long as the structure has been agreed upon or as previously agreed, the tender procedure should be clear,” he added.

                               Malaysia High-Speed Rail Corp (myHSR) Sdn Bhd chief executive officer 

                                                    Mohd Nur Ismail Mohamed Kamal