SG-KL High-Speed Rail Has Been Officially Cancelled; M’sia to Compensate S’pore for Costs Incurred

If you’ve been waiting eagerly for that “90-minute ride to KL”, I’ve got bad news for you.

Having been repeatedly put on hold for a few times, there’s now an update on the SG-KL HSR, and it’s a disappointing one.

KL-SG to KL-JB?

The SG-KL High-Speed Rail, which was first announced in 2010, was supposed to begin construction back in 2018 and be operational by 2026.

Unfortunately, the ambitious plan, which would’ve made it the first High-Speed Rail operation in Southeast Asia, met with a few snags and was put on hold twice.

Back in Nov 2020, two Malaysian sources involved in the project told Free Malaysia Today (FMT), a Malaysian news site, that Malaysia could be proceeding with the project without Singapore’s participation.

This means that the terminal station, instead of ending at Singapore, could end at Johor Bahru instead.

It was additional claimed that Singapore was informed about the changes.

However, on 27 Nov 2020, Mr Mustapa Mohamed, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy) stepped forward to say that Singapore and Malaysia are still in negotiations, and the conclusion will only be reached on 31 Dec 2020.

That was yesterday, and here’s the conclusion:

SG-KL High-Speed Rail Has Been Officially Cancelled; M’sia to Compensate S’pore for Costs Incurred

On 1 Jan 2021, the Prime Minister Office (PMO) of Singapore released an update about the SG-KL HSR.

The statement stated that the Malaysian Government had proposed several changes to the HSR Project due to the impact of Covid-19 on Malaysia’s economy.

After several discussions on the proposed changes, both countries’ governments were unable to reach an agreement by 31 Dec 2020.

With that, the HSR agreement has “lapsed” and both Singapore and Malaysia will now have to abide by the agreement signed and proceed with the “necessary actions resulting from this termination of the HSR Agreement”.

Despite that, it was stated both Singapore and Malaysia “remain committed” to maintaining good bilateral relations with each other.

You can read PMO’s statement in full here.

According to the Ministry of Transport, Malaysia now has to reimburse Singapore for the costs incurred in fulfilling its part of the agreement.

It was previously reported by Malaysian media that the amount to be compensated is around RM300 million (S$100 million).

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