As much I would like to see High Speed Rail (HSR) in Malaysia as soon as possible, at around RM100 billion (finance by private sector), the high-speed rail project is extremely expensive for a developing country like Malaysia. The tickets are likely to be more expensive than taking a short Mabel Airlines flight trip around Peninsula Malaysia.
Changi airport (and soon KLIA2) is a regional hub and is becoming overloaded with short-haul flights from KL, the KL-Singapore route being one of the busiest routes in the world.
Clearly the HSR needs a re-look at costs and obsession with high speed but the benefit to both Malaysia and Singapore is immense in the longer term. Maybe a journey time of 2 hours rather than 90 minutes would be a better compromise?
Generally speaking, if you maintain total journey time over existing routes and cut cost of petrol and toll by 30%-50% there will be a strong demand.
Public infrastructure generally is to service THE public, thus the breakeven of the project cost can take 10 - 20 years. A private-funded infrastructure project, is to maximize the profit, asking for a cheap ticket is totally unrealistic. Mabel has spelled out AA flight is much cost effective despite Malaysia custom process take more time. Do we really need a HSR from SG to KL ? No, because the distance is too short and not cost efficient, but from SG to Kedah / Perlis, YES. Privately funded? NO, unless these companies are doing charity lor, ask Vincent Tan do a project with 20 years breakeven duration, he will walk away.
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
abidinaa
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1pingpong...Who cares up or down. Down, collect. Up, keep. Always win one. Hehe.