MRT more important than ECRL, HSR

It was recently reported that

Malaysia wants to improve existing rail services, network

excerpts;

Prime Minister (PM) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Malaysia’s priority presently is not to build a high-speed train network, but to improve the quality of existing railway services.

The PM said it is not worthwhile to have an HSR for short journeys, but instead may consider such super fast train to operate from Johor Baru to Penang or even the Thai border.

“We will not build the high-speed train yet, but we want to improve the quality of services in our railway system, and that has been done to some extent, by double-tracking and electrification,” he said at a question-and-answer session after delivering his speech at Technomart Rail 2019 

Okay, fine, no KL-Singapore Shinkansen for us anytime soon.

That despite

KL - Singapore being world's busiest 

international flight route

I believe a bullet train between the two cities would likely be profitable as well as good for the environment as a lot of jet fuel could be saved if we can cut down the number of flights.

What to do. The current government prefers to revive the ECRL instead.

I do wonder why though, because the suspension of both projects cost lots of money.

Maybe the government was trying to salvage our relations with China, which is the main player of the ECRL project. That's after all that talks about the previous government trying to sell the country to Beijing.

Whatever it is, I think the Japanese may not be very happy about this because at one time I believe they almost got the HSR project. Especially after they gave us the samurai debt and other nice gestures.

Personally, I prefer the HSR over the ECRL because it would make my trips to Singapore much easier.

I'm actually not all that excited about the ECRL project since it was first conceived because I can't see much urgent need for it.

In fact, I would have much preferred for the government to revive the next phase of the MRT project rather than the ECRL

I took this picture on the MRT about 6.15pm yesterday,

Quite packed. Almost like in Japan.

I believe the LRT units are even more crowded these days, especially during rush hour.

Hopefully, the government will one day consider improving the rail transport in Klang Valley as being more urgent as it serves mainly the common people.

But then again maybe reviving projects like ECRL would open up more business opportunities for "certain people" unlike MRT or HSR.

Well, never mind.

Maybe we will have to wait till the end of this term before we can get better public transport in the Klang Valley.