Singaporean govt ready to look at proposals on reviving KL-Singapore high-speed rail

SINGAPORE - The Singaporean government is prepared to discuss with its Malaysian counterpart about the Kuala Lumpur–Singapore high-speed rail (HSR) project.

Its Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman said Singapore will look at any proposals from Malaysia to revive the HSR operation from a clean slate.

“If you know the history, the earlier proposal and agreement on the high-speed rail had been stopped for reasons that have been noted before.

“We are waiting for any proposal that might come from Malaysia and we are prepared to look at it from a clean slate and not looking at the previous one at all.

“We will look at what are the proposals, what could be the possible things that Malaysia would want to consider,” he said during a fireside chat with the Malaysian press in conjunction with the 15th Malaysian Journalists Visit Programme, here.

Maliki also noted that there have been voices from Malaysia about reviving HSR and Singapore has previously expressed that it was ready to look into it.

The railway project to link Kuala Lumpur to Singapore via a high-speed rail line was first proposed by then Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in 2010.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong formally agreed to the joint project in 2013 with HSR originally expected to be completed by 2026.

However, the grand plan to cut travel time between Singapore and Malaysia from four hours by car to 90 minutes came to a halt on Jan 1, 2021 when both countries jointly announced the project’s termination.

This was after both countries failed to reach an agreement on changes proposed by Malaysia before the agreement of the project which involved 350 kilometres of development, lapsed on Dec 31, 2020.

Meanwhile, in addressing the Causeway congestion issue, Maliki said the government has opened more stations for immigration checkpoints to alleviate the traffic situation.

He added that the situation has been improving over the years.

“About 400,000 (people) use the Causeway (and Second Link) on a daily basis. You can just imagine the size (of the crowd).

“Today, the motorbikes go through quiet seamlessly.

“Both sides are working hard to ease the congestion through improving the infrastructure and facilitating the ease of immigration (clearance),” he said.

Beyond that, he said the government was also looking forward to the completion of the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) link adding that both countries will continue to study on what could be done on both ends.

The RTS project is expected to complete by the end of 2026.