Malaysia - Singapore High Speed Link Plan to be Resurrected?

[jjb1970]

There's a long thread on SE Asian railways in the Asia railways section, but some people might have a specific interest in the high speed railway proposal to link KL and Singapore. This is dead after costs went silly, but it seems that there may be a crack in the door to bring it back to life.

 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/lawrence-wong-ismail-sabri-yaakob-high-speed-rail-hsr-kuala-lumpur-malaysia-2921681

[adb968008]

I cant see this happening.

 

Real estate in Singapore is too expensive, tunneling would be too expensive, as would be building a suitable terminus under central Singapore.

 

Who owns the old trackbed now from Johor to old Singapore station ? (i thought KTM who owned it, sold it.. realising the value of the land (in a government land swap deal) being the reason the line was closed.

 

Fond memories of riding this line, but it was a 12 hour journey to KL.. one of the few times you risked diplomatic plurality, as you enter Malaysia, through juxtaposed immigration on platform 1 at Singapore station… once beyond, the train and track is under Malay control,  but you only exited Singapore by deboarding, completing customs, then reboarding at Woodlands station 20 minutes up the line, meaning for around an hour your in two countries at once, in inverted borders… (if Singapore refused your exit, or you chose not to continue, you then had no means of getting a corresponding exit stamp from Malaysia..)

The reverse direction (or foot/car exit) was a normal border process, you exit Malaysia before the bridge, and enter Singapore on the otherside at Woodlands

 

The reason for this oddity is in British history, in that Malaysia was deemed sovereign of the railway lines  territory into Singapore. Singapore had no formalities on the station property, but did at Woodlands by the border bridge..so they do formalities there.

 

I love Asia for things like this…
 

On another occasion I exited Macau by boat, but arrived at Hong Kong airport… (yes HK Airport has its own borderless international ferry terminal)… meaning between Macau and London I was in no mans land, as I exited Macau, but didn't pass through HK immigration… the Macau ferry tips out right into the boarding hall… and the funniest part… as my plane ticket included HKIA immigration fees, I was refunded these in cash by an official on my way up the stairs to the departure hall, due to not using the border services).

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by adb968008

[jjb1970]

The path of the old line between Woodlands and Tanjong Pagar is a national park nature walk and cycling path, the Rail Corridor. It's well worth a visit, they made a very nice job of restoring the station at Bukit Timah. Tanjong Pagar station is a building site, it's part of the building site for the new MRT circle line works in the area, at the moment the circle isn't a circle and they're working on the final section to close the loop and make it a true circle. 

The main problem with the possible HSR is the relationship with Malaysia. If Malaysia gets its act together Singapore would make it work at their end, however it would really be a Malaysian program (albeit probably with an awful lot of Singaporean financial support). The dust is still settling after the fall of the Najib regime (he just started a long prison sentence) and the Malaysian government is trying to restore confidence in the country.