Jurong Country Club (JCC) in Jurong East selected as KL-Singapore HSR Terminus in Singapore
The Singapore Government announced today that the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) terminus will be located at the current site of Jurong Country Club in Jurong East.
The terminus will take up about 12 hectares, or about 20 per cent of the Jurong Country Club site. Jurong Country Club has total land area of 67 hectares.
In a joint statement issued by the Land Transport Authority (LTS) and Singapore Land Authority and Urban Redevelopment Authority, the site will also be comprehensively re-developed for new mixed-use developments including offices, retails, hotels, shops and community facilities to serve Jurong residents, HSR passengers and visitors.
At the 6th Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat on May 5, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that the HSR terminus in Singapore would be located in Jurong East.
This is in line with the Government’s vision to develop Jurong into a second Central Business District and as a new gateway to Singapore.
The Jurong Country Club site is ideal due to its high connectivity, with close proximity to the existing two MRT lines (East-West and North-South Lines) at Jurong East MRT station, new MRT lines (the Jurong Region Line and Cross Island Line) being planned around the area, as well as the future integrated transport hub in Jurong East.
The terminus will also be located close to Jurong Gateway, which is already shaping up well as a vibrant mixed-use precinct.
Hence, the terminus location is compatible with the surrounding land uses, and well-supported by infrastructure and amenities.
Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail Ticket Price
Users of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail can expect to pay around S$90 (RM240) each way once the line connecting the Malaysian capital to the republic is complete, according to estimates from transportation experts.
Polled by The Straits Times in Singapore, they suggested that KL-Singapore HSR expected ticket price could be between S$80 and S$90 in each direction, and said it was unlikely that prices will be low enough that the average office worker could expect to afford a daily commute between both destinations.
“I have great difficulty believing that the price of a ticket will be at a rate that regular workers can afford for daily commute,” Nanyang Technological University transport economist Walter Theseira told the Singaporean newspaper.
Theseira cited as example the 345-km Taipei-Kaohsiung high-speed rail line — of comparable distance to the KL-Singapore HSR link — which charges NT$1,630 (RM190) per trip as a likely benchmark for ticket prices.
Another analyst, National University of Singapore transport expert Lee Der Horng also predicted a low capacity for the high speed rail line, expecting it to be able to carry no more than 80 people in its 12-carriage trains.
Industry observers told the ST that the high speed rail link may also use budget plane tickets as a yardstick for its own prices, and is likely to adopt the fluctuating price model used by airlines that change according to low and peak periods.
The rail line is likely to boost tourism between the neighbours — Singapore is already Malaysia’s biggest source of tourist arrivals — as Ngee Ann Polytechnic tourism lecturer Michael Chiam said it will encourage more day trippers.
Malaysia and Singapore agreed to the high speed rail link between the two capitals following a retreat between Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, in 2013.
The planned high-speed rail link is expected to cover 300 kilometres between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and cut travel time to just 90 minutes.
It was initially expected to be completed by 2020, but both countries have since said that the deadline must be “reassessed”; industry experts expect that it will take another two years from the original date before the line is operational.
Seven stops have been identified in Malaysia, namely Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Seremban, Ayer Keruh, Batu Pahat, Muar and Nusajaya.
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).
Japan has been actively lobbying to be a partner in the Malaysia-Singapore high-speed rail project, but other countries such as China and South Korea are said to have approached Malaysia as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment