PETALING JAYA: Transport experts have poured cold water on rumoured plans for the proposed High-Speed Rail line to end in Johor Baru, and said the project would be doomed if it stopped short of Singapore.
FMT had reported, quoting highly-placed sources, that Malaysia planned to build the line up to Johor Bahru instead of Singapore. Officials have since said talks were continuing but did not comment specifically on the report.
Transport consultant Goh Bok Yen said if the speculation was accurate, the project might as well be scrapped completely as it would most likely fail.
He said those who wanted the line to end in JB failed to see the bigger picture, which was to connect the two mega economies of Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, which was mutually beneficial on many levels for both countries
Goh said the spillover from the HSR would be tremendous, as KL would be a “hinterland” for Singapore, while for Malaysians, the republic would be a gateway to an international market.
“And the concept of the HSR is that when a passenger steps into a HSR terminal on either side, you get immigration clearance immediately, as each country’s officers are placed on both ends of the terminus.
“ This allows you to practically walk from KL straight to the streets of Singapore minus the trouble of going through immigration. But to have the train to end in JB will do more damage than good,” he said.
Goh said the KL-JB express bus services and KTM’s rail services would be affected.
“KTM can practically serve the KL-JB route with its electric train service going at 160km/h. It is double tracked and can be tweaked to not stop anywhere in between, while buses can serve smaller cities,” he said.
If the HSR goes as planned to Singapore, it would only compete with air travel. He said airline companies would be forced to change their ways to compete, offering shuttle flights minus delays, similar to busy air routes linking major European cities.
Goh said running a HSR service to JB would render the multi-billion-ringgit project wasteful, if it takes into account the construction and land acquisition costs.
“In the end, you are bullying small transport players, ironically with taxpayers’ money. I say, if for some reason we can terminate at Singapore, let’s just compensate them and get out of it.
“It is a loss making venture in the long term, better to stop than going in the wrong direction,” he said.
Goh said in the long-run, the HSR would go beyond KL, with a next possible phase to Penang and later, to Bangkok, so as to generate a growth corridor which would propel the economy immensely.
Universiti Sains Malaysia’s professor of transport engineering Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said pulling out of Singapore would change the project outlook which was justified for the project. He said it is best to go back to the original intent of the HSR, which is to encourage KL and Singapore travel.
Businessmen want HSR to terminate in Singapore, not JB
Johor’s captains of industry appear to be not so keen on having JB as the HSR’s final stop.
Loh Liam Hiang of the Johor Bahru Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said: “Both countries have agreed that the route would be KL to Singapore. What is the point of us changing it now?”
Christina Tee of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry said JB was easily accessible via the existing KTM railway and via highways. Having the HSR end there would defeat its purpose.
Johor Indian Business Association chief P Sivakumar said the whole idea of the HSR was to get more foreign investments to flow into the country. “Singapore has already spent money to start the project, it is not fair for Malaysia’s part to change plans midway,” he said.
Tan Seng Leong of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Malaysia said the government should have decided on the change earlier, before a Rapid Transit System link was mooted to connect JB and Singapore.
Tan said the RTS was more than enough to connect JB to Singapore and there are other efficient ways to get to JB from KL.
Johor Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s K Krishnan said all is not lost if the HSR stopped at JB, as RTS would be able to transfer passengers to Singapore.