SOUTH EAST ASIA | High Speed Rail

[khoojyh]

This Thread is all about the High Speed Rail in South East Asia.



As according to political map, South East Asia included Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Timor Laste, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.



Some Proposed High Speed Rail in South East Asia (SEA)









Original News : http://www.economist.com/node/17965601
Integrating South-East Asia

China coming down the tracksA railway boom promises to tie South-East Asia together—and boost China’s sway
Jan 20th 2011 | BANGKOK | from PRINT EDITION



THE rapid expansion of its high-speed railways has got China plenty of attention. Yet ambitions do not stop at the border. On its southern flank China is renewing a push to lay tracks to mainland South-East Asia. The region’s leaders have dreamed since the 1990s of seamless rail travel between Singapore and Kunming, capital of the south-western Chinese province of Yunnan. South-East Asia’s existing network of railways is creaking, patchy and underfunded. Most goods move about the region by lorry and ship. But that creates choke points while running up fuel bills. An integrated rail system could be just the ticket.

Enter China, chequebook in hand. It has recently signed agreements to build new lines in Laos and Thailand, while it extends its network from Kunming to the China-Laos border. These lines are meant to be ready by 2015. The benefits may be huge. Most countries along the route have already hitched their wagons to China’s outsize economy and are eager for more trade. China’s free-trade agreement with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which took effect a year ago, has cut tariffs on most traded goods. The region still has natural resources, which China is keen to strip.

Empire-builders love railways. Most of South-East Asia’s were laid during colonial rule, as Britain and France pushed inland. In a region with American leanings, China wants to bind its neighbours into an economic sphere with strategic weight. Laying lines into Myanmar, with a large but decrepit network, would add a coveted Indian Ocean port. More regional trade with its centre in Yunnan spreads wealth inland, another Chinese objective. Trains already shuttle between China and Vietnam, which has a north-south railway. This linkage opens up the possibility of a circuitous eastern route into South-East Asia, via Cambodia and Thailand. Both countries belong to the Greater Mekong Subregion, a grouping fostered by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) that also includes Vietnam, China, Laos and Myanmar. According to the ADB, it would cost $1.1 billion to build the missing links along this route, making it the cheapest way to connect the region. Some $7 billion more would be needed to upgrade existing lines and rolling-stock. By 2014, once this route is operating, it would carry almost 7m tonnes of cargo among Greater Mekong countries, rising to 26m tonnes by 2025, the ADB reckons. Greater Mekong countries duly backed the plan in August.



Yet China quickly upended this consensus. In December Laos said China would build a $7 billion high-speed railway from the border to its capital, Vientiane. Construction is set to begin in April. Meanwhile, Thailand is negotiating with China to build a connecting north-south line to Bangkok, using concessionary Chinese loans. ADB officials are left scratching their heads over what this means for the Vietnam-Cambodia route, including a long stretch that China had been expected to build but which now appears to be on the back burner.

On paper, the Laos-Thailand route is more direct, but it is also far more mountainous, with 190 kilometres (120 miles) of tunnels in Laos and countless bridges. Remote areas of Laos are also littered with unexploded bombs from the Vietnam war. None of this is likely to stop a country that laid a railway up to the Tibetan plateau.

In Thailand the hazards are more political. To get around the mighty, hidebound state operator, the Thai government proposes a new line using Chinese technology to run parallel to the existing one. A Thai-Chinese entity would rent the land from the state operator and build its own signals and stations. Handily, the route would pass through Thailand’s poor and politically disaffected north-east, giving a shot in the arm to the local economy.

Thailand says that fast passenger trains would reach speeds of 200 kilometres an hour, streets ahead of what currently pass for express trains. Tourists could ride luxury carriages to exotic destinations. A fast train, says Korbsak Sabhavasu, the government’s chief negotiator, is something Thailand needed 20 years ago. But Thailand’s treacherous politics may yet intrude, as any final agreement with China needs the nod from parliament. In an election year, this is no certainty.

Tourists and trainspotters may be tickled by a fast train to China. Yet the real point of modernising the railways is cargo. Intra-ASEAN trade is growing much faster than exports to developed markets. Nearly a quarter of Thailand’s exports go to South-East Asia, with another 11% (and rising) to China. Trains are more efficient and less polluting than lorries on all but the shortest routes. Peter Broch of the ADB estimates that a rail service from Bangkok to Phnom Penh would cut the price of moving a container by two-thirds compared with moving it by ship and lorry, as now.

Even without a railway network, the region is tying itself together. Roads have been upgraded, and customs procedures are less tape-bound than they were before. When Wang Er-Chern began trading agricultural produce in northern Thailand in the early 1990s, it took two weeks to send goods by road and ship via Laos to his native Yunnan. Today the journey has been shaved to two days. Mr Wang, prominent in the Thai Yunnan Commerce Association, says a fast rail link to Kunming would be nice. But he grumbles that business has already become less profitable as more Chinese traders have got in on the act. A trainload more may soon be on the way.

from PRINT EDITION | Asia

[Alexriga]

South East Asia is future of the world's civilization and center of it. Keep on rocking guys!

[khoojyh]

THAILAND

Originally Posted by Setgabell

รัฐบาลพรรคอะไรน้าาาา ที่ว่าลงทุนสายกรุงเทพ-เชียงใหม่ มันคุ้มค่ากับการลงทุนมากที่สุด ตอนนั้นไม่เห็นจะเดือดร้อน ตอนนี้ทำมาเป็นมีปากมีเสียง นี้แหละน้าสิ่งที่เขาเรียกว่า ตัวปุกปั่นความวุ้นวายทางการเมือง สงสัยคงจะถนัดนักแล ยุคสมัยนี้เขาช่วยกันพัฒนาบ้านเมืองแล้วมันไม่ควรจะมีการขัดแข่งขัดขากันอย่างที่คุณทำอยู่อีกเลย ได้โปรดดดดด

From Thai forum

[khoojyh]

THAILAND

Originally Posted by Codename B

Govt to move on high-speed rail projects

Published: 27/12/2011 at 12:00 AM

The Transport Ministry has vowed to press ahead with a plan to develop five high-speed railway routes as proposed by the former Democrat-led government, Transport Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat says.

The plan was approved by the previous government and endorsed by parliament.

The minister reaffirmed the current government's support for all five high-speed routes after an agreement was signed between China's Vice President Xi Jingping and Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Thursday for China to develop the high-speed train project to run from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.

Government spokeswoman Thitima Chaisang said other routes would be added later. That the Bangkok-Chiang Mai line was given a priority revives hopes that the other four routes would still be developed. ACM Sukumpol said no objections had been raised to the original project to build five high-speed railway routes and so relevant agencies would start detailed discussions.

According to the minister, the 745km Bangkok-Chiang Mai route will cost about 230 billion baht; the 870km Bangkok-Ubon Ratchathani route will cost about 180 billion baht, the 615km Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima-Nong Khai route will cost about 200 billion baht, the 982km Bangkok-Hua Hin-Padang Besar (Malaysia) route will cost about 300 billion baht and the 221km Bangkok-Rayong route will cost about 70 billion baht.

Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning director Soithip Traisuddhi said a committee will be set up to study the details of the projects and will present them to the cabinet for consideration.

Ms Soithip said Chinese investors are interested in backing three routes _ Bangkok-Chiang Mai, Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima-Nong Khai and Bangkok-Hua Hin-Padang Besar.

A source at the Transport Ministry said China wanted to invest in the route that will run from Bangkok to Nong Khai because just across the border from the Thai province, a Laos-China high-speed rail track is also planned to run from Vientiane to Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/loca...-rail-projects

From Thai forum

[khoojyh]

THAILAND

Originally Posted by Codename B

Govt inks 70-billion-yuan swap deal with Beijing

The Nation December 23, 2011 1:00 am



Chinese VP Xi on three-day visit; hails relations with Bangkok amid US moves in the region

Thailand has signed a 70-billion-yuan swap agreement with China to strengthen trade and investment between the two nations, the highlight of a three-day official visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping seen as highly significant domestically and diplomatically.

Attending the signing with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra yesterday, Xi hailed Thailand's importance for regional peace and development. The swap agreement for 70 billion yuan, or about Bt320 billion, was signed by Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul and Hu Xiaolian, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China.

Apart from its economic importance, the mega-deal puts an international spotlight on Thailand as a strategically important country as far as Sino-US political and economic competition is concerned.

Xi, the man expected to take over as China's top leader next year, arrived in Thailand yesterday on a three-day official visit to the Kingdom as the guest of the Thai government. Thai sources said Yingluck was paying personal attention to the details of his welcome, underlying the importance Thailand attaches to this visit.

The three-year currency-swap agreement was initially announced on Sunday. Thai exporters welcomed the agreement, saying it would help reduce costs and boost trade opportunities between Thailand and China amid slower economic growth in the United States and the European Union.

The measure will also help reduce the US dollar's influence on the global monetary market and increase the weight of other foreign currencies, since the US economy remains fragile.

More Thai exporters will trade under the yuan regime in the future, as now more than 90 per cent of the country's exports are transacted in US dollars, and that is costly for those who export to China and other Asian markets.

Experts see this as an attempt by Beijing to improve ties with its neighbours after Washington's unveiling last month of a strategic shift towards Asia, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Chinese government has also announced that it will send 100 tablet computers for Thai students to use in a free trial. It will also grant a special loan of US$400 million (Bt12.5 billion) to the Thai government.

Xi was greeted by Yingluck at Government House and held bilateral talks there, followed by a dinner hosted by the Thai prime minister, according to MCOT online.

The discussion covered a wide range of topics including Sino-Thai cooperation, regional and international cooperation, and other issues of mutual interest to both parties.

Having already been congratulated by Washington for her election triumph, Yingluck received sweet words from Beijing. "It has been proved that the development of China-Thailand ties has brought pragmatic benefits to the two peoples and made important contributions to the regional peace and development," the Chinese vice president said.

"My visit is aimed at consolidating bilateral good-neighbourliness, enhancing strategic mutual trust and advancing pragmatic cooperation," he said.

The two leaders witnessed the signing of memoranda of understanding on the development of a high-speed rail link between Bangkok and Chiang Mai, a railway system connecting Asean member countries, and a complete water-management system, including cooperation on flood- and drought-prevention measures.

The vice president is the most senior representative of the Chinese government to visit Thailand since the formation of Yingluck's government. Xi is expected to visit rehabilitation centres and shelters in the aftermath of the recent flooding and will visit the Confucius Institute at Chulalongkorn University.

In a written statement delivered at the airport, Xi said China and Thailand were good neighbours, partners, friends and relatives who enjoyed a longstanding friendship, China Daily online reported.

Since the forging of diplomatic ties between China and Thailand 36 years ago, Sino-Thai relations have continued to develop in a healthy and stable manner under the aegis of the two countries' top leaders and through the concerted efforts of the two peoples, Xi said.

The two sides have gradually expanded cooperation in such areas as politics, economy and culture, and maintained close coordination in regional and international issues, he said.

During his visit, Xi will also meet with Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and the heads of the Privy Council and the National Assembly of Thailand.

Xi had just completed an official visit to Vietnam before coming to Thailand, the last stop on his Asian tour.

http://nationmultimedia.com/business...-30172508.html

From Thai Forum

[khoojyh]

Thailand

[/URL]

[khoojyh]

Malaysia

Originally Posted by nazrey

Feasibility studies on high-speed KL-Singapore rail
By SHARIDAN M. ALI Tuesday March 8, 2011
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story...&if_height=642

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government is currently undertaking feasibility studies on a high-speed rail connecting Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

Public Land Transport Commission (SPAD) chief development officer Azmi Abdul Aziz said that the feasibility studies would take about eight weeks to complete.

“We have done some comparisons with other similar high-speed rail links around the world such as the Paris-Brussels link and it is feasible to connect Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, spanning around 400km,” he said.

“The high-speed rail is expected to have a positive impact on the country's tourism industry, have a time-saving factor and further unlock the property values in Kuala Lumpur.

“But, although it is feasible, we still have a lot of further considerations to look at such as the impact on other parallel transportation as well as the demand and supply.

“Besides the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore link, SPAD is also looking at other high-speed rail proposals involving Kuala Lumpur-Penang-Bangkok,” Azmi said in his presentation at the Greater KL: smart city of the future conference yesterday. The conference was organised by Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute and IBM.

Federal Territories and Urban Well Being Minister Senator Datuk Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin said the second of four dimensions that governed Greater KL or the Klang Valley aspirations was to improve intra and inter-city links.

“Regional connectivity will be accelerated by deploying a high-speed train system to connect Greater KL and Singapore.

“At the same time, intra-city connectivity will be improved by the mass rapid transit (MRT) system,” he said in his closing keynote address at the conference.

SPAD is currently busy as the supervising agency for the roll out of the country's first MRT system, the construction of which is expected to start in July.

The MRT was a subject of debate at the conference, touching on issues pertaining to station location as well as its integration with other modes of transport.

Mag Technical and Development Consultants Sdn Bhd director Goh Bok Yen, in commenting on the announcement of the first MRT line, said the public must be given the overall picture of the MRT (which is proposed to have three lines) to receive valuable feedback.

“The public needs to know the overall picture of integration which involves the physical, operational, ticketing and information aspects. These are vital to convince the public of the viability of the MRT project.

“But, I'm sure that SPAD has its reasons for announcing the development of the initial line only as of now,” he said in his presentation at the conference.

On other concerns over the MRT project, Goh raised the question of the size of the four-car MRT train.

“The four-car MRT train is expected to carry more than the four-car light rail transit (LRT) system train. Thus, the size of the MRT train may be bigger in diameter.

“A fatter train will need bigger tunnels, which will cost more, or should we have a longer train that will need smaller tunnels?” he asked.

Goh also questioned the need to have the announced Sungai Buloh-Kajang MRT line paralled to the main road and highways.

Nevertheless, he did not dispute the need for a good urban rail transport that should be the backbone of urban public transport.

“But, one has to be aware that MRT is only one of six modes of transport in Kuala Lumpur.

“MRT is unable to be sustainable by itself where it is supported by feeder services. This is because MRT is inflexible. We need other modes of transport to get us to our final destinations.

“Thus, it is vital to have a balanced approach to the master plan of urban public transport where it should be sustainable, flexible in capacity and capability, and expandable,” Goh said.

[khoojyh]

Singapore

Originally Posted by nazrey

funny pic I found
image hosted on flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adforce1/4499838506/

From Malaysia Forum

[wan11]

Originally Posted by khoojyh

Singapore



From Malaysia Forum

Nice photoshop.

[junstein]

HIGH SPEED BULLET TRAIN IN THE PHILIPPINES update last 2009


no info as of this moment