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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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The Express Rail Link (ERL) is behind schedule by four years with its
rail link between Kuala Lumpur and its new international airport at
Sepang. This RM2.4 billion express project could (not would) be ready
in 2002. The consortium, cobbled amongst partners who needs no outside
help to go at each other's throats, however does not let incompetence or
shortage of funds to dream. It goes without saying that the cronies,
courtiers or siblings have significant small stakes in it. It now
plans, as the Berita Harian tells us, for a RM10 billion (US$2.4
billion) high-speed railway between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Bolehland business men always think big, usually in inverse proportion
to competence or business sense. This is no different. The Malaysian
plan challenges the Japanese and French highspeed trains, driving at
speeds of 250km per hour to complete the journey in 90 minutes. It
would now take six hours by train or four hours by car, about the same
time by plane, although flying time is less than an hour. This aims to
challenge air traffice between the two capitals, and cut down both
Malaysian Airlines System and Singapore Airlines profitable sector.
MAS, as a Bolehland carrier, would meet competition in its stride,
usually by sliding deeper into debt, but SIA, not used to rail
competition, and insists on making a profit, must wonder where it went
wrong.
The ERL chief executive, Mr Aminuddin Adnan, promises to complete
the link in five years, so that by 2007, it would take me as long as to
reach Singapore as on a normal working day from my home in Brickfields
to Gombak 20 kms away. The government has shown interest, but has not
given its approval. I wonder why. It does not miss a chance to smite
the face of Western and industrialised countries to prove that Bolehland
can dream better than the industrialised countries could build. Mr
Adnan even can tell you now what the ticket would cost: RM200, or half
the air fare. But daydreaming is not just ERL's; the DRB-Hicom Bhd and
the Renong Bhd group also bids to build a competing express rail link.
Mr Aminuddin is not fazed by competition. ERL could well linkup with
DRB-Hicom and Renong, especially since all three are controlled by the
same individual. As for the trains to be used, three are considered:
France's TGV train, Germany's Inter-City Express and Japan's Shinkansen
"bullet" train. Curiously, with such brilliant planning, the mainstream
newspapers, which would not miss a chance to beat the Bolehland drum,
did not even bother to follow it up. This could well be their personal
jealousies for one amongst themselves gave Malaysia what we in the trade
call a "scoop", a news item no one else has carried.
Bolehland discourages its citizens, especially the journalists, to
look at its gift horses in the mouth. So, the Berita Harian stayed away
from the nasty questions it should have asked. But here are a few: Who
builds the tracks for this highspeed railay: ERL or KTM Bhd, the
company that owns the existing tracks? Can more than 400 kms of high
speed tracks be built at five times what it cost to build 50 kms? Would
it stop to pick up passengers along the way? Is there sufficient
traffic to ensure such a costly venture? Would there be Malaysians who
want to travel on this service when the cheaper alternative is
acceptable to most who travel by train? Or is the Samy Vellu clause to
be invoked: that when the high speed rail link opens, direct travellers
between Kuala Lumpur, and points in between, could not travel on the
cheaper KTM trains? Or is this project to ensure that the consortium
constructs it at the highest possible cost, all of which is loaded on to
the operating company to guarantee it no profit for a century? Renong's
North South Highway is so steeped in debt, by this method, that
Malaysians must continue to pay higher tolls to keep it out of
bankruptchy. Where is the money to build this coming from? Neither of
ERL's two partners -- TH Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
Tabung Haji, and YTL Corporation -- has or can raise the RM10 billion
for this hare-brained scheme. Kuala Lumpur's urban train companies
cannot make ends meet, runs at heavy losses, cannot attract people on to
it because it remains too costly for the average Malaysian.
What I find perplexing is ERL's, and DRB-Hicom-Renong's, proposal
excludes Singapore. The station therefore would be on the causeway
itself. The prposal does not say if passengers would be ferried into
Singapore by high-speed buses and taxis. Singapore has in place the
railway station for traffic into Malaysia. The more one looks at the
proposal the more unlikely it would get off the ground. For this rail
link to succeed, there must be people willing to travel on it, and there
must be frequent services several times a day, more than now. It also
requires a different culture of service and sophistication. Travel in a
first class sleeper on Malayan Railways, and you would find out why the
project cannot take off. What Malaysia needs is regular, fast, clean
train service between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. At present, there is
no pressure to fill the four or five services between the two points.
What makes ERL think that its proposed highspeed link would fare much
better?
M.G.G. Pillai
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