Singapore-Kunming Rail Link project making good progress

By Wong Mun Wai, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 19 October 2007

SINGAPORE : Agreements on linking up the transnational Singapore-Kunming Rail Project have been reached.

This update was given at the latest meeting in Singapore among ASEAN countries involved in the project.

Officials say the project is coming along.

In Cambodia, the missing link between the towns Sisophon and Poipet is expected to cost US$73 million and will be completed in three years.

Four rail links in Vietnam are being built or upgraded with rails replaced, and bridges and signal systems modernised.

In fact, several investors are keen to build one of them - the estimated US$250 million connection between Ho Chi Minh City and Loc Ninh in Vietnam, stretching almost 130 kilometres.

The four links in Vietnam are estimated to cost US$965 million.

Over in Thailand, one out of the three projects to build missing links is finished.

Construction has not started on the other two links; one is subject to a technical study, whereas a feasibility study has been submitted to the authorities for the other.

The Singapore-Kunming rail project is estimated to cost more than US$2 billion.

Thus, part of the trip to New York later this month for the ASEAN Finance Ministers meeting is to capture more international investor interest.

Malaysia's Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy said, "It will be presented there with the purpose also to showcase the investment opportunities in ASEAN."

So far, the Asian Development Bank, Chinese and French governments are funding part of the project.

Also raised at the meeting was the issue of the high speed rail link between Singapore and Malaysia.

An official from the Ministry of Transport said the Government's position of looking into a proposal by the Malaysian government has not changed.

The Malaysian Minister of Transport said the idea is still being discussed between the proposing corporation and departments in the Malaysian government.

Officials say the proposer of the project, Malaysia's YTL Corporation, is carrying out studies into the engineering aspects and land acquisition for the project.

The next meeting of the project's working group will be held in Malaysia next year.

Any updates on this project? $2billion from Kunming to Singapore seems too cheap, unless its just for freight.

I believe the investment is to provide the links to existing railways. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I agree. I think it is not to build a new railway but use current lines to form a new connection. Hope this can come ture.

泛亚铁路

http://www.ce.cn/cysc/jtys/tielu/200609/05/W020060905265393389859.jpg

what? is this really being built??

^^ it may still need some time since many countries are involved.

here're some related news:

First Thai-Laos rail link opens

March 5 2009


http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45536000/jpg/_45536442_laosrail226.jpg
Laos officials say the new rail link will help cut export costs on goods

Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has opened a rail link over the Mekong river, linking Thailand and Laos.

Two passenger trains will run the 30-minute return trip each day, serving about 500 people daily.

The new link adds a vital 3.5km (2.1 miles) to regional plans to link Asia by rail, ferrying goods and passengers.

The UN-backed Trans-Asian Railway now has nearly 74,700km of working track serving 29 countries, and estimates for completion range from 10 to 15 years.

New links

The inauguration marked the first international rail link for Laos.

A Laos foreign affairs spokesman said the railway was important for his country as it would greatly reduce export costs, as transport by lorry was only previously available.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45536000/jpg/_45536443_laosbridge226.jpg
The Thai Lao Friendship Bridge now has a functioning rail link

The ultimate aim was to "unlock" and transform a country with no direct access to the sea, Lao Railway Authority spokesman Sompong Pholsena told the Lao News Agency.

The track over the Friendship Bridge took 20 months to complete and was funded by Thailand at a cost of about 197m baht ($5.5m; £3.8m).

The bridge is a key part of the region's transport development, extending road links from Singapore to China's port city of Shanghai.

The new network is part of a plan conceived in the 1960s to connect Asia with a continuous railway, stretching west to Turkey and Russia, and north and east to China, Vietnam and South Korea.

Decades of regional conflict and poverty have delayed the plan until recent years.

BBC News

Mengzi-Hekou rail in Yunnan Province to connect Kunming with Vietnam

http://www.chinanews.com.cn/tp/gnxw/news/2009/03-26/U179P4T8D1619677F107DT20090326161520.jpg

Length: 141km
Speed: 120kmph
Construction starts: 2008.12
Construction period: 4 years

　　云南蒙自至河口铁路作为泛亚铁路东线的重要组成部分，建成后将为加强中国与东南亚各国之间的交流与合作奠定基础。该铁路项目2008年12月开工建设，正线全长141公里，建设工期四年，速度目标值为每小时120公里，建成后可开行客车12对，货运能力达到每年1000万吨。目前，该项目建设进展顺利。图为蒙河铁路蒙自县境内路段施工现场。

source: http://www.chinanews.com.cn/tp/gnxw/news/2009/03-26/1619677.shtml

China, Australia to Build Final Leg of Asian Railway

By Luke Hunt
Phnom Penh
15 May 2009


http://www.voanews.com/english/images/AP-Cambodia-railway-15May09-210.jpg

Man drives homemade wooden cart on railroad in Kampong Chhnang province some 50 kilometers north of Phnom Penh (2008 file photo)

Chinese and Australian engineers are gearing up to build the final stretch of track in the Trans-Asian Railway, which will link Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand with Vietnam and China through Cambodia. The Cambodian government has divided the country's railway system in two. Australia's Toll Holdings takes control of old French-built lines in the east, which run from the capital to the Thai border and south to Sihanoukville, home to one of the largest ports in the Gulf of Siam.

The China Railway Group has the contract to carry out a feasibility study that will link Phnom Penh with Snoul near this country's western border with Vietnam.

This 255-kilometer stretch will complete the Singapore-to-Kunming line, a railway connecting southeast Asia to the heart of China.

Paul Power is an advisor to the Cambodian government and team leader for the Asian Development Bank's involvement in the reconstruction of Cambodia's railways. He says the railway's economic benefit for the region and Cambodia will be enormous.

"It makes Cambodia the hub of transportation between China and Singapore and you would have a port link, you would have a link to Thailand, you'll have a link through to Vietnam," Power said, "and the implications for that, for Cambodia in the region, are that Cambodia becomes the hub."

He says freight will provide the greatest economic benefits, particularly for shipping bulk goods like rice. The railway will be a cheaper alternative to ships and trucks.

However, the contractors first must deal with the thorny issue of resettling people living along the route. In Cambodia, poor landholders often are pushed out with little compensation to make way for commercial developments, causing considerable public anger.

Power says the companies working on the railway are aware of the problems that have afflicted other construction projects and thinks they can avoid similar difficulties.

If the resettlement issues are resolved quickly then authorities hope the first passengers from Singapore to China and beyond as far as London, will start boarding within the next two years.

I m not sure how is the process so far. but i concern, after the railway constructed, the ecological environment along the railway will be destroyed seriously, because the places of cash crop will be extended along the railway, as rubber trees and banana trees give huge impact on the weather, especially in rein-forest area.

instead of Kunming to Hanoi only, why don't add one more line, from Hanoi to Hong Kong via Nanning, Guangzhou.

instead of Kunming to Hanoi only, why don't add one more line, from Hanoi to Hong Kong via Nanning, Guangzhou.

They already have a rail-line which goes from Hanoi to Nanning. The shortest way to get to Hong Kong from Nanning, you have to take the train that travels on the rail-line that goes to Maomling. That Maomling rail-line continues on to Guangzhou and then Hong Kong.

This is a China Rail map from 2008. It is large.
http://ommanepadmehum.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/china-rail-map.jpg

By the way, they are already building more direct fraight and passenger railway from Nanning to Guangzhou. So that leg from Vietnam to Hong Kong will be even shorter and allow for more direct route. Construction was started in 2008 and will be completed in 2012.

Source: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/6530708.html

P.S. Thanks for the detailed map.

CHN has sponsored THA on HSR, does this has some link with KSR?

coooooooooooooooooooooooool

what about connecting two Asian giants(China ,India) through highways and railways??
it would be the nice. is not it?

Exciting Project!!

The railway construction will speed up in 2011

http://space.wenxuecity.com/_gallery/201101/6/113.jpg

http://i1.sinaimg.cn/jc/2011-01-03/U1716P27T1D626610F3DT20110103102151.jpg

http://space.wenxuecity.com/_gallery/201101/6/114.jpg

(wenxuecity)

I don't see the benefit of the rail line. Every city along it, with the exception of Kunming and Hanoi, are only a few kilometers from the sea where travel by ship then bus would be faster and more efficient. Is this a passenger only line?

Is Vietnam interested now?

I heard that China is planning a railway to Laos.

I don't see the benefit of the rail line. Every city along it, with the exception of Kunming and Hanoi, are only a few kilometers from the sea where travel by ship then bus would be faster and more efficient. Is this a passenger only line?


it is more for strategical or political purpose than economical. i believe it is for both freight and passenger

I don't see the benefit of the rail line. Every city along it, with the exception of Kunming and Hanoi, are only a few kilometers from the sea where travel by ship then bus would be faster and more efficient. Is this a passenger only line?

I am sure about 100 million people would disagree.

it is more for strategical or political purpose than economical. i believe it is for both freight and passenger

Somebody is building it, maintaining it and taxing it ... 'economical' it is.