The race is on in the lead up to the tender to appoint the assets company for the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail project. The tender is expected to be called by year-end, and rail services are projected to start operations by 2026.
If Japan — which has been fervently making a pitch to Singapore for the project — ends up winning the bid, it could have positive repercussions on the local economy, as Singapore firms are brought in to be part of the construction process, reported TODAY.
Japan’s Minister for Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Keiichi Ishii, emphasized this on Monday (Aug 28) at the Third High-Speed Rail Symposium held in Singapore, which saw Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan in attendance.
According to Channel NewsAsia, Japanese public sector officials and companies brought up the safety, reliability and sustainability of their country’s Shinkansen High Speed Rail system to make the argument for the Singapore-Malaysia project. As for the cost of running the Shinkansen, the Japanese minister would only reveal that it was 14 percent lower than that of similar train networks in Europe and China.
They said that the Shinkansen system has had no fatalities in its years of operations since its debut in 1964, and the average annual delay per train is less than a minute.
When the time comes, both Singapore and Malaysia will take into consideration what each bidder can offer for the rail network, in the areas of security, safety, reliability, operational flexibility and financial sustainability.
The Land Transport Authority said it would conduct a second briefing in London next month to offer more information about the tender to interested parties.
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