Malaysia's High Speed Rail project back on

 By Sharen Kaur

THE Kuala Lumpur (KL)-Singapore (SG) high-speed rail (KL-SG HSR) may be well on track and the market is excited about it.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said on Tuesday at the launch of the transit-oriented Bandar Malaysia project in Kuala Lumpur that in order to keep cost low, the speed of the bullet trains may be reduced, and possibly, the length, too!



"The HSR will go ahead, but we will have to find out what speed (of the train) we should have. It's not necessary for it to be 400 kilometres because if it travels at 400km, it might reach Alor Setar (in Kedah). Maybe less speed will contribute to the reduction of the cost," said Dr Mahathir.

Under the current proposed plan for the KL-SG HSR project, the line will be 350 kilometers long, and is expected to reduce travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to 90 minutes, from the current 11 hours on existing train services.



It will have seven stations in Malaysia – Bandar Malaysia, Sepang-Putrajaya, Seremban, Melaka, Muar, Batu Pahat and Iskandar Puteri, before reaching its last destination in Jurong East, Singapore.
 
Rail experts have said the 350km line would cost around RM60 billion to RM65 billion. Based on estimates in 2015, the KL-SG HSR cost per km for systems and track is US$10 million (RM42.6 million). This means, for a total length of 350km, the systems and track works would cost RM15 billion.





Civil infrastructure cost is about three times more than the systems and track, which works out to RM45 billion.


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