As Malaysia’s next king takes up Singapore high-speed rail cause, is it a case of too costly, too late?

Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar reportedly said the rail link remained viable if financed privately and realigned to run through the Forest City mega-project

Resurrecting the project, however, may end up incurring a cost that Malaysia’s government cannot afford, with funding ‘the biggest challenge’

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Malaysia’s landmark Petronas Twin Towers (right) and other commercial buildings in Kuala Lumpur. The high-speed rail link aimed to provide a 90-minute direct rail connection between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:30pm, 19 Dec 2023Updated: 12:39pm, 19 Dec 2023

Malaysia’s government is under sudden pressure to revive a multibillion-dollar high-speed rail (HSR) link to Singapore, after the nation’s king-in-waiting said it should be brought back, sparking public debate on the project three years after it was shelved.

The link, originally mooted in 2016, aimed to provide a 90-minute direct rail connection between Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

But it was cancelled in December 2020 in part due to the multibillion-dollar price tag despite its potential to become the pivotal, final piece in a Beijing-backed puzzle of high-speed rail lines connecting southern China to Singapore.

Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar of Johor (right) will assume his duties as Malaysia’s king in January. Photo: EPA-EFE

Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, who will assume his duties as Malaysia’s king in January, said in an interview with Singapore’s The Straits Times earlier this month that reviving the HSR would be a priority of his five-year term.

The ruler reportedly said the project remained viable if financed privately and should be realigned to run through the troubled Forest City mega-project, in which he is a key investor, and that the cost would not have ballooned so much if the government had not been “on-off-on-off” in its decision on the HSR.

Malaysia’s decision to cancel the estimated US$17 billion project has left it lagging behind some of its regional peers in rail connectivity and speed.

In October, Indonesia launched its Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway under China’s Belt and Road Initiative at a cost of US$7.2 billion. Work is also under way in Thailand to build another belt and road project – an HSR line that will eventually link Bangkok to Kunming.

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