More news on the public transport-related front, this time concerning the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) that will connect Malaysia and Singapore. Word is that the HSR project, which was announced last year, won’t be meeting its planned 2020 completion date.
News reports indicate that both countries have agreed to reassess the targeted 2020 deadline. Both Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong said that this reevaluation was necessary given the complexity and scale of the project. A new date is expected to be set by the end of the year.
Najib said that the development of the HSR will take five years, with another year needed to design the project and another for the tender process, so it may only be as early as 2022 before the line becomes operational. The HSR’s terminus in Malaysia will be located in Bandar Malaysia at Sungai Besi, while the Singaporean terminus will be at Jurong East.
When it is in operation, the 330 km line is set to bring down the travel time between KL and Singapore to 90 minutes, with trains on the service projected to run at average speeds of 350 to 450 km/h. A number of countries are lobbying for involvement in the project, including Japan, France, Germany and China.
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Why start at Bandar Malaysia???
What the hell is wrong with Sentral?
Sometimes I wonder what those goons up at Putrajaya is thinking (or not thinking).
guess the goons get master contract to develop bandar malaysia…$$$$
You are aware who owns/will be developing Bandar Malaysia right? Anyways, that’s a different topic, and not one for Paultan or car enthusiasts.
As someone working in the rail industry, i can answer these question. (btw TLDR version: to build rails you need lands, and there is no land available at KL sentral)
The short answer to your question is Land availability. As you can see at KL sentral, the lands in the vicinity has been used up almost entirely.In addition, the areas around KL sentral hub has been developed or under development. If the HSR terminus were to be situated here, i can expect that major land acquisition have to be done to this area which will see many of the buildings demolished. And those will involve major costs.
The thing about building railways is that the rail itself have to meet certain curvature criteria, more so if its designed as a high speed rail (read: the tracks need to be straight and have gentle turns). So this brings back to the main issue which is that KL sentral is so packed that building the tracks will also need major land acquisitions.
Then you might ask, why not build it underground? Basically the Malaysian land laws states that the owner enjoys the land from the core of the earth to the heavens above. This means that even if the HSR were to go underground, the land and buildings on top would still need to be acquired. And thus we are back to square one.
Also there is another issue which is the KL sentral building capacity itself. The design of the KL sentral hub were not meant to cater to the high ridership that it sees now. If the HSR were to stop there, there might be a chance that KL sentral might not able to cope with the commuters and cant disperse them effectively.
Anyway, its a good move that the HSR ends and Bandar Malaysia, as the area is still relatively empty, there is a strong possibility that the HSR will be a catalyst to generate growth/development in the area. Not to mention that it is nearer to the city center.
With all that planning (or lack thereoff) It still forces passengers to go from Hub to hub. Didn’t they say Sentral was supposed to be THE Transport Hub? How has it turned up? The MRT was suppose to service Cheras, only to be pulled to Bandar Malaysia for reasons I wont mention here.
Did they not plan for future expansion for Sentral? Lack of capacity my foot. Lack of foresight more likely.
Paris can manage to have Gare de l’Est (TGV /ICE – South/East) and Gare Du Nord (Eurostar)next to each other. Literally within walking distance, or a short hop on the underground or bus. If such an old City as Paris has such capacity, don’t tell me KL doesn’t? Shortsighted much?
Large scale of vacant area is needed for such a project especially the terminal. Underground construction and land acquisition hardly to be done around the KL Sentral area as what “not a rail expert” mentioned earlier. The big turning radius of the rail track make the location in KL Sentral there even more impossible. Furthermore, the tunneling work is too much costy and as you can see our national budget condition now.
All the difficulties and engineering matters I mentioned above can be resolved provided more budget to be allocated. A lot more.
So why build Sentral in the first place?
I dont buy the no space nonsense. seen what they are building at Sentral?
They have no land because most of it is sold to developers to build new commercial development instead of facilitating future proofing a TRANSPORT HUB.
Just so you know, Gare de l’Est & Gare Du Nord were opened basically simultaneously in 1846/1849.
But then Malaysians in general are never a foresighted bunch – see the noise of people demanding subsidized fuel & cheap price for everything but their salaries.
Precisely my point.
I used to travel a lot and Gare Du Nord and gare de l’Est is usually my transit points.
There is enough for capacity/expansion for a 150 year old station.
How old is Sentral?
No more space left for HSR.
IIANM, Bandar Msia will have coonection with future MRT2
It’s already more than 20 years yet the project is still on the drawing board.
Compared that with China, during the past 20 years they’ve built tens of thousands kilometers of high-speed rail connecting major cities in China. You can even ride a train from Guangzhou to Beijing now.
Haiz…thats how slow things works here, WTF!
Use your brain
there is no more space in Sentral look on google map its surrounded by malls/buildings
There is so much space in bandar malaysia and it will be linked with future MRT 2 so not a problem
Hope fully no life is lost using C4 in this project!
I presume one of Singapore’s reason is too widen the “playground” for their WEALTHY citizens I don’t know weather it is good for Malaysia overall – Prices that is.
How about looking into high speed railways that serve as a counterpart to the PLUS highway? one connecting Johor to Perlis and every state in between.
wont happen. too much to maintain that gravy train (pun intended) called PLUS.
In this day and edge, the best speed they can muster on the ETS is 140km/h (0k, I’ve seen 145 once)
old rickity diesel trains already hit those speeds decades ago.
The plan is definitely an excellent idea, the thing is, we need a company that is capable of running efficiently, without interference from any “dirty hands”. Otherwise it’s gonna be another global joke.
To be rational, let’s hand the project over to the Japanese. They’re literally the best in this field.
Agreed…….perhaps built and managed by them with little interference from both Malaysia and Singapore government. Anything that our G have their hands on turns into a disaster.
Chances are, the chinese will win this. Cost and financing wise, they’re unrivaled.
They’re not too bad actually.
you are right bro but reliability and practicality, i dont think others could beat japanese. Their trains literally like the country’s veins..
Too expensive. Unless they dare to lowball, there’s no way Shinkansen can be attractive.
When China aggressively built their HSR network, part of the deal with Japanese and German trains were to have technology transfer. All of them, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Siemens, Bombardier thought it is still ok, cuz the contract is good money.
Thanks to that, Chinese trains are competent, and cost competitive too.
Don’t be surprised China will give full loan for the trains, with little to no interest. Let’s see how desperate the Japanese wants this contract, but as I see it, good luck to non-Chinese manufacturers.
China train has more accident than japan even though they are new…
Don’t be ignorant, there’s been only 1 fatal accident so far involving China’s HSR. Germany had more accidents that that, so German trains unsafe? Should we be afraid of upcoming MRT, using Siemens’ train?
The Wenzhou tragedy was unfortunate, the signalling system based on European system failed, causing 2 trains to collide.
The trains that collided were not even Chinese, there were made by Kawasaki and Bombardier.
inb4 conspiracy to discredit Japanese and German trains.
Anyway, due to that accident, Chinese-made CRH380A had to slow down from normal operating speed 350km/h to 300 km/h. CRH380A had once demonstrated Chinese-made can operate at fastest speed in the world safely, but now they’re running at normal, standard 300km/h.
It has been in the plans for years. Hopefully it’ll be done by 2020 and it’ll spur tourism and development around the other 5 stops that will be dotted between KL-Sgp. It’ll also form part of the large network of high speed trains that China is envisioning. In the future train travel to China from Malaysia will be a possibility
IMHO, I feel this project benefit the most to singaporeans. they can daily commute from KL to Singapore without hassle.pucrhase house in Klang Valley could lead to higher price in house in which normal ppl like me unable to acquire.
HSR won’t be cheap, expect no less than RM150 per trip. It’s unrealistically expensive to daily commute that way.
That’s the reason why Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad Upgrade ( Double Electrification ) From KL to Padang Besar first, KTMB direction is the most benefit for us. While Track between Gemas to Johor Bahru, there is a proposal to upgrade but soo far never see a development to start the upgrade yet.
New Train set will be coming once Butterworth Station on ETS list. It should cut the travel time between city.
Staying in KL and travel to S’pore to work everyday is almost impossible if you don’t get ultra high pay.
I reckon the fare is affordable say KL to JB about RM250/trip but once entering Singapore, the fare can goes as high as RM350/trip and vice versa.
The sg gov principle is to lock their high income people in the island, they won’t simply let their people and expat to stay in JB or KL. Or, people will consider to choose KLIA instead of Changi and they are going to lose the business. Else, Malaysia benefits more and this is what they don’t want to happen.
This is plain stupidity or just a gimmick. Just do it until JB first la. As if singapore is our territory.
why we need sporean in this project? why can we build from JB to Padang Besar? the longer we wait, cost will escalate, make more difficult to complete on time
Great news but have to wait so long…
Why the hell we need to do with Singapore?Come on Najib!
First we don’t know the ticket fare of HRS, and other costs, will people used budget airline against HRS for travel to Singapore.
The frequency of HRS to Singapore, people (Selangor and WP) should travel by rails either for shopping in Singapore, weekend buffet, or to work/business.
Travel time HRS 90min vs flight time 55min (35min diff) no much of difference. I had travel on the Japan’s shinkansen “bullet train” before, assume HRS would be the same too, the comfort rides really makes the difference.
If this project based on BOT, then those who has strong financial and political relationship will get this project. China has done the rails project with Vietnam and Laos.
I think HPS system is part of Trans-Asian Railway Network agreement signed in 2006 from 18 countries and set to take off soon between Malaysia and Singapore.
The advantage of train travel is you don’t have to be at the airport 2 hours before departure and all that security nonsense, and with my experience with European trains, thier service interval is very good and supremely comfortable.
Prices are not much different for 1st class TGV and Sardin Class budget air.
HSR is the best way to suck singapore dollars
For Malaysian HSR project , although we’re far behind from many country , even local transportation system is far behind too , late than never. Choosing Bandar Malaysia at Sungai Besi considered great, but in the same time , I was thought that LRT, ERL, KTM, HSR or other system gathered in one place which is KL Sentral, it seems not, but then KL Sentral itself already flooded load of amount of visitors every single day so current suggestion at Bandar Malaysia will be the best choice. Suggested future price may be around 200 bucks, suggested rail track usage will be more than 1500mm wide , wider than the meter gauge track that our country used currently which is maximum speed that can achieved is around 180km/h. What I hope for the standard operating speed for HSR is 330km/h with each stopping time around 1-2 minutes. Be it China or Japan company get the project, one thing for sure that those who tender the project is that to build the fastest , reliable, safest, comfortable ride for the people to enjoy.