High speed derailed

Nearly eight years of plans and negotiations down the drain, or should I say, derailed - the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR) is no more, for now.

This could have been the Jurong East terminus of the High Speed Rail. Credit: Farrells.

The grand plan for a 350km high speed rail line was first hatched in 2013. Both nations signed a legally binding bilateral agreement to build the line in 2016, with a target to have trains running by the end of 2026.

The rail line was to have eight stations - Kuala Lumpur, Sepang-Putrajaya, Seremban, Ayer Keroh, Muar, Batu Pahat, Iskandar Puteri, and Singapore, in Jurong East. Travelling from terminus to terminus would have taken just 90 minutes, compared with over four hours by car and five hours end to end by air.

Credit: The Business Times.

An artist's impression of the planned Iskandar Puteri station in Johor. Credit: Edelman.

However, things began to unravel in 2018, when Malaysia’s long-standing Barisan Nasional government was toppled by the opposition Pakatan Harapan in a federal election. Fresh at the helm, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad dropped the bombshell that Malaysia would drop the HSR, claiming that it would cost the country too much - RM110 billion (S$36 billion) - with few returns. Then, he backtracked, clarifying that the project was not cancelled, but temporarily shelved.

So, the HSR was put on hold, officially suspended until May 2020, with the operationally ready date pushed from 2026 to 2031. When May arrived, Malaysia asked for another extension of the suspension, to the end of the year. As the 31 December deadline loomed, Malaysia and Singapore tried negotiating changes to the agreement which the former had proposed. Both sides could not reach a consensus by the deadline, so the agreement was allowed to lapse.

The dealbreaker was Malaysia’s proposal to remove the HSR’s systems supplier and network operator, known as the Assets Company (AssetsCo).

Singapore’s Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung told Parliament: “Because neither country has the expertise and experience in operating the HSR, we agreed under the HSR bilateral agreement to appoint a best-in-class industry player through an open and transparent international tender to assume the role of the AssetsCo.

“Once appointed, the AssetsCo will supply the train system, operate the network, ensure that appropriate priority is given to cross-border HSR service vis-a-vis Malaysia’s domestic service, and be accountable to both Singapore and Malaysia.

“To Singapore, the AssetsCo is the centrepiece of the HSR project and is necessary to ensure that the interests of both Singapore and Malaysia are protected.

“This will minimise the possibility of future disagreements and disputes over the long duration of the project, lasting decades.

“Singapore, therefore, informed Malaysia that the removal of the AssetsCo constituted a fundamental departure from the HSR bilateral agreement, and could not be accepted.”

It is only logical that since both nations have no experience in running a HSR, the company running the HSR should be appointed through a transparent, international tender. Malaysia did not want this anymore, and it was right of Singapore to reject this.

Some in Singapore had harsh words for this revelation. Straight-talking, retired diplomat Bilahari Kausikan posted on Facebook: “To put the core of the matter bluntly: Malaysia did not want any check on its ability to cream off money.”

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I had been looking forward to an HSR in my backyard - all I had to do was take the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) to Jurong East, and then hop on a ride all the way to Kuala Lumpur. In terms of distance, it’s roughly equivalent to travelling from Tokyo to Kyoto.

I know the Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) train system will still be around in Malaysia, but an HSR feels... different. It’s a world away.

The Japanese shinkansen. Credit: Workinjapan.today.

But that’s how transport history flows, doesn’t it. As the author of Jalan Singapura, I should know. Transport history is never a straight, continuous, linear progression from primitive to advanced. There are starts and stops, unexpected twists and turns. In 19th-century Singapore, it took three decades for railway plans to come to fruition, and when it finally opened in 1903, no one expected it to be removed 108 years later in 2011, upstaged by the MRT system.

The KTM.

Same for the HSR. When the exciting concept was unveiled in 2013, I never expected the Malaysian government to be replaced in 2018, or COVID-19 to strike in 2020, dealing body blows to the economies of both Malaysia and Singapore. Now, it’s all about austerity and closed borders, and flashy, high-speed cross-border travel seems to be the last thing on everyone’s mind.

It’ll be many years before both governments discuss an HSR again, let alone the signing of a deal and the commencement of construction of billion-dollar infrastructure. Will it ever happen in my lifetime? We’ll see. Stranger things have happened in transport history.

Virtual bus lanes

In terms of Singapore transport history, Lorong Ah Soo has hardly made a mark.

It began life as a nondescript track off Upper Paya Lebar Road, possibly sometime in the 1930s - it first appeared in the newspaper archives in 1938. It fortuitously survived urban renewal in the early 1980s. When Hougang New Town came up in the area, it was not expunged; instead, it was lengthened to meet newly-built Hougang Avenue 3 and serve the flats of the southern part of the town. Today, it remains a relatively humble two-lane dual carriageway.

Lorong Ah Soo in 1954, highlighted blue.

Lorong Ah Soo today. Credit: Google Maps.

Now, however, it may make transport history, by becoming the first road in Singapore to trial virtual bus lanes:

When a road is too narrow to accommodate an actual bus lane, how can traffic planners give priority to buses?

Answer: By implementing virtual bus lanes.

This is being considered in Lorong Ah Soo, a two-lane road in Upper Paya Lebar which sees a relatively high volume of buses.

In response to a query from The Straits Times (ST), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said: “This is a potential research collaboration between LTA and TUMCreate to explore the use of sensor technology as a way to improve use of the bus lanes, while giving priority to public transport when needed.”

The LTA said details of the collaboration are being finalised.

TUMCreate is a public transport research platform manned by researchers from the Technical University of Munich and Nanyang Technological University.

It is funded by Singapore’s National Research Foundation as part of the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise. According to researchers, Lorong Ah Soo sees up to 35 buses per hour heading towards Hougang Avenue 3.

At an online symposium on Dec 1, TUMCreate researcher Andreas Rau said that a 900m stretch of Lorong Ah Soo is being considered for the virtual bus lane trial.

ST understands that the system will flash a “Clear Left Lane” sign when it senses a bus approaching to persuade motorists to filter to the right and allow the bus to pass.

Credit: The Straits Times.

The idea is not completely new.

Variations of virtual bus lanes have been proposed or trialled in cities in Britain and Switzerland in recent years.

Earlier this year, transport researcher Meng Xie spoke about a dynamic bus priority system in a TUMCreate journal.

She said the virtual right of way “aims at improving bus operation while minimising potential negative impacts on private vehicles”.

There are 211km of bus lanes in Singapore, which give buses right of way from 7.30am to 9.30am, and from 5pm to 8pm on weekdays. Of these, 23km are full-day bus lanes, which operate from 7.30am to 11pm from Mondays to Saturdays.

The upcoming North-South Corridor, a highway linking Woodlands to the city, will have bus lanes along its entire 21.5km length in both directions.

Asked if virtual bus lanes would work, lawyer Sarjeet Singh, 54, said: “Like most things, this will work if one is fined for ignoring them.”

But he added: “Bus lane restrictions are generally observed here.”

Singapore University of Social Sciences transport economist Walter Theseira said: “Giving way to emergency vehicles and priority vehicles is the responsibility of all motorists in the area - not just the ones directly in front. We have to get motorists into that mindset.”

It will be interesting to see how virtual bus lanes turn out. Like the lawyer quoted above, I believe it will work only if one is fined for ignoring them. And it might work better for suburban town roads that see lower traffic volumes, as compared to busier city roads.

Ultimately, virtual bus lanes should not be an easy way out, detracting from Singapore’s car-lite goals. Going car-lite should still mean striving to reduce the city-state’s private car population and reliance on private cars, not finding ways to accommodate private transport alongside public transport. Virtual bus lanes should be a means to an end, not the end itself.

End of a dream

And then there were six.

Six taxi companies in Singapore, that is.

In 2018, HDT Singapore Taxi became the Republic’s seventh and smallest taxi operator. However, it has lasted just two years.

HDT Singapore Taxi has become the first taxi business to fold amid the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with the Land Transport Authority this week accepting its application to close.

The electric taxi operator said it had been “wrestling with the slowing growth” of the business since the start of the year.

About 90 taxi drivers and four back-end staff were let go, an HDT spokesman said, attributing the decision to the “prolonged, debilitating impact” of the coronavirus on the industry.

It said it is restructuring to focus on other green transport solutions, like electric buses and trucks, as well as the leasing of electric vehicles.

The company, which was granted a full taxi service operator licence in 2018, is the smallest taxi company in Singapore. It operated about 100 electric taxis, and had said it wanted to expand its fleet to 800 by 2022.

Unlike the more flexible models of other taxi and private-hire companies, which treat drivers as self-employed, HDT employed its cabbies and paid them salaries, with perks such as annual leave and contributions to the Central Provident Fund (CPF).

Those retrenched will be paid a month of salary for each year of service, on a pro-rata basis. Drivers will be given their annual wage supplement, have their Medisave accounts topped up till the end of the year, and be given a one-off retrenchment benefit “as a gesture of gratitude”, the company said.

Mr Ang Hin Kee, executive adviser to the National Taxi Association and the National Private Hire Vehicles Association, said HDT’s employment model meant it has had to bear a bigger burden of the crash in the taxi market this year.

He said that, ultimately, drivers could not “deliver the targets” to match the salary paid by HDT.

There has also not been much of a clamour among cabbies for HDT’s employment model, with many preferring to be self-employed and have more flexible rental.

“At the end of the day, it’s about the market losing 40 per cent of ridership demand. There are no tourists and no nightlife and very few entertainment venues,” he said.

Demand for taxis and private-hire cars during the two-month circuit breaker in April and May was almost non-existent. Even now, with the economy slowly reopening, ridership continues to hover around 60 per cent to 70 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, severely impacting drivers’ - and taxi companies’ - revenue streams...

Credit: Vulcan Post.

So much for HDT Singapore Taxi being Singapore’s only taxi operator to have wholly electric-powered vehicles, and pay its drivers fixed salaries with CPF contributions. These novelties didn’t help it survive the city-state’s worst public transport ridership crisis in decades.

One piece of transport trivia for posterity - what does the “HDT” in HDT Singapore Taxi stand for? Hold Dreams Together.