If you’re planning on hopping the new high-speed rail (HSR) line running between KL and Singapore for your daily work commute one day, be prepared to pass your boss one hell of a claims form: experts project a one-way trip on the trains could cost RM240 a pop.
Transport economist Walter Theseira of Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University told the Straits Times that it would be unlikely that the new rail line would offer fares low enough to accommodate daily work trips for regular salarymen.
“I have great difficulty believing that the price of a ticket will be at a rate that regular workers can afford for daily commute,” he said.
Those familiar with the high-speed rail industry estimate that the KL-Singapore HSR qould probably charge between SGD80 (RM216) to SGD 90 (RM243) for a one-way trip that would take them from one city to another in about 90 minutes.
They added that currently, those travelling between KL and Singapore are paying between RM68 to RM135 for a five-hour bus commute, and about RM216 for a one-way flight on a budget airline.
Full-service flights between KL and Singapore cost around RM675 one-way.
The fare estimates are based on a similar HSR service running from Taipei to Kaishung in Taiwan, for which passengers pay NT$1,630 (RM189) for a 345km trip – slightly shorter than the distance between KL and Singapore.
Budget airlines would be most at risk of competition from the HSR train service, although National University of Singapore (NUS) transport expert Lee Der Horng countered that the new 12-car trains would only be able to transport 80 passengers at a time.
Theseira added that the service would benefit companies who often send their employees between KL and Singapore the most, as the fast travel times would negate the need to provide travelling staff members hotel accommodation in either city – they could simply take day trips.
“Companies now book rooms for delegates for a night. With the HSR, they can return on the same day. This will significantly reduce the cost of doing business and spur partnerships between both countries.”
The KL-Singapore HSR line was initially projected to be complete by 2020, but a joint statement by PM Najib Razak and his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong said that the deadline would need to be “reassessed”, with completion of the rail line now expected to take until at least 2022 before it is ready to go.
The project’s actual cost has not been announced, but reports have placed it as possibly ranging from US$8 billion to US$ 24 billion (RM24 billion to RM72 billion).
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