high speed rail for Malaysia

Having a high speed rail system is definitely great for any country's infrastructure but it is expensive to build. Malaysia's previous Government signed an agreement with Singapore to build the high speed rail that connects Malaysia with singapore. The route will be from Kuala Lumpur heading southwards to Singapore.
The project was ambitious and the cost when factored in with the kick-backs to certain politicians was far too expensive at RM110 billion. It is not a project that the country can afford at this point in time. The cost outweighed the benefits and it would be a massive burden to the public. Taiwan built its high speed rail system more than 1 decade ago and despite it popularity the company managing the high speed rail system is in financial trouble.

It appears that a country would require a big population with sufficient disposable income to support a high speed rail system. Japan and France have the longest serving high speed rail system and both are part and parcel of daily life in these countries. China is the 3rd country to have the high speed rail system and has the most extensive high speed rail network in the world. These countries have the money and population size to support the high speed rail system.

For Malaysia it is a nice to have not but a necessity. The second proposal that was recently discussed about is to improve the rail network and update it to allow the trains to run at higher speeds, not quite high speed rail speed of 320km/h but at 200km/h which is sufficiently fast. An improvement in efficiency and increase in frequency could help transportation to a greater degree at a lower cost.

The debate still goes on regarding the high speed rail and the new proposal. Singapore appears to be unhappy that Malaysia has announced its cancellation of the high speed rail project. There is nothing much Singapore can do since more than 80% of the rail line is in Malaysia and the bulk of the costs will be bored by Malaysia. It is unfair for Malaysia to bear the cost of the project when it is not in the financial position to do so.