Cross-border barriers to the development of HSR projects : analysis of the Singapore- Kuala Lumpur high speed rail link/

Abstract

It is widely recognized that the benefits of High Speed Rail (HSR) such as a driving force of the economy, helps us to reshape the activities of people and business. These benefits were brought to light for its reliability, safety, punctuality and environmentally sustainability compared to other transport alternatives. Given this myriad of advantages, there is a question why there are only small numbers of border crossing HSR exists in Europe and Southeast Asia though both areas place great emphasis on further integration of the region. The objectives of this research are two-fold: 1) From the European cross-border HSR cases, find what the cross-border "effect" is. How could we overcome this situation and how could we learn a lesson from the existing projects? 2) Cross-border HSR project between Singapore and Malaysia has been proposed in 2013 and expecting to start the operation by 2020 but still has not made their final proposal with number of uncertainties. What could be their current "hesitation", or future "barrier" for not making progress? This research has developed a framework for understanding the viability of cross-border rail projects as well as presenting what each stakeholders needs to make this cross-border HSR project happen. This outcome will help understand whether this will be a viable project to pursue and to what extent will this be beneficial between the two countries when it makes progress. Expected outcome of this research is to propose a "road-map" and a supporting tool for all the actors involved in this project to clearly understand what the current state of this complex system is, and use it as a tool to see how the potential alternatives might affect the system. Assuming the project will make progress if all the "barriers" are removed, it is important to let them visually understand what the current "barriers" are, what are ways to be removed out and what could be the tools or methods to support this project to make progress. As we have more diverse actors being involved, it is reasonable to think that visualization is important to have people intuitively understand other's intention.