TOKYO: The Japanese government is willing to assist Malaysia and Singapore by providing funding to ensure that the High Speed Rail (HSR) project will materialise by 2020.
Japan’s Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry’s Railway Bureau director Tomohiro Kobayashi said the government had repeatedly voiced its willingness to share its expertise and decades of experience from its Shinkansen bullet trains.
“We are open to share our 50 years worth of experience with both governments, including providing technical training on the hardware and software aspect of the Shinkansen system,” he said, referring to the system and manpower aspects of its bullet trains, respectively.
“Training will be given to the technical crew and drivers as well. We believe rain will be among the challenges for the Malaysia-Singapore HSR project but we will help by giving tips and information on technical aspects to cater to the necessary needs,” he said, adding that the Japanese had provided consultation to the Land Public Transport Commission (Spad) which is leading the HSR project in Malaysia.
The Shinkansen industry started in 1965 when the Tokaido Shinkansen started its operation. Three more networks — the Sanyo, Kyushu and Tohoku Shinkansen — were later opened, bringing the total length of operations to 2,400km.
Noting that its first HSR line — the Tokaido Shinkansen — took five years to complete, he said it would be tough for Malaysia and Singapore to meet the deadline, given the time needed for designing and other processes.
He said his government was ready to extend its assistance including to inject funds in the project, if the Shinkansen system was adopted.
“If the Malaysian government needs assistance in operational cost, we can use the Official Development Assistance (ODA) system, which is aimed at helping developing countries. Our government can also help by injecting funds in the form of investment in the private corporation involved in the project.
“However, the Malaysian government has yet to release any specific content on the project so we cannot propose any amount or the most suitable means to assist in the project,” Kobayashi said at the ministry’s office here.
On the cost of the Malaysia-Singapore HSR project if both governments decided to adopt the Japanese Shinkansen, he said it would depend on several aspects, including infrastructure and its design. He said the 350km Tokyo-Nagoya Shinkansen route also had an almost similar length, and it had proven to be a popular mode of transportation.
“For travel between Tokyo and Nagoya, 71 per cent of passengers said they prefer using the bullet train as compared to the bus (5 per cent) or airplane (23 per cent).”
However, the travellers’ preferences were more balanced when it came to the 800km Tokyo-Hiroshima route, as only 55 per cent of them preferred the bullet train over airplane (42 per cent) or buses (2 per cent). Japan’s Shinkansen celebrated its 50th year on Oct 1, and had maintained a zero passenger fatalities and injuries record.
This, he said, was due to the dedicated rail tracks that eliminated possibilities of collision and the absence of any level crossings along the tracks.