Singapore to Malaysia high speed rail project finally terminated
The on-off high speed rail project to link Singapore and Kuala Lumpur is officially off the rails.
The two governments had been unable to compromise after Malaysia sought several changes to the multi-billion dollar project to reduce costs.
Malaysia’s previous Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad had originally cancelled the project but it was later back on track with revised plans before the pandemic.
Due to the pandemic-battered economy, several new changes were sought, with Malaysia seeking to revise financing options to allow deferred payments and public-private partnerships.
"In light of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the Malaysian economy, the Government of Malaysia had proposed several changes to the HSR project," a joint government statement said.
"Both Governments had conducted several discussions with regard to these changes and had not been able to reach an agreement."
Malaysia will now recompense Singapore for work already carried out.
"Both countries will abide by their respective obligations, and will now proceed with the necessary actions, resulting from this termination of the HSR Agreement," said the joint statement.
The HSR link would have cut travel time to just 90 minutes compared to a current time of four hours.
Malaysia has reportedly been mulling its own project linking KL with Johor Bahru, which is the Malaysian frontier city that sits on the cross border causeway with Singapore.
Written by Ray Montgomery, Asia Editor
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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