Malaysia mulling Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok High-Speed Rail project

Construction News

Malaysia mulling Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok High-Speed Rail project

Fancy a fast train ride from KL to Bangkok?

Like most city-to-city high-speed rail services such as the London-Paris Eurostar and the proposed KL-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR), the benefit over flying is one does not have to travel all the way to the airport (usually a distance from the city) and go through the entire check-in and immigration process. The flight itself might not be long, but the total door-to-door travel time is.

In the case of KL-BKK, imagine boarding at KL Sentral and going straight into Bangkok’s core – say a rail hub with both BTS and MRT lines such as Chatuchak – skipping the trip to KLIA and the congestion from Suvarnabhumi to the city (that’s you, I take the train). Nice, right?

Guess what, not only is Malaysia trying to revive talks on the KL-Singapore HSR, the government is also exploring a feasibility study on a KL-Bangkok HSR project. This was mentioned by transport minister Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong in parliament this week while touching on the KL-SG HSR, which you can read about in detail here.

“In line with the prime minister’s visit to Thailand on the 25th of February, 2022, the transport ministry is also exploring the possibility of having an HSR feasibility study from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok,” he said, reported by The Star.

No further elaboration for now – just that. A quick Google Maps search shows that the distance (by road) from KL Sentral to Bangkok’s Hua Lamphong is just short of 1,500 km. Flying from KL to Bangkok typically takes two hours and 10 minutes, before factoring in travel to and from airports and the check-in process.

So, what do you think of a KL-BKK HSR? If you’re liking the idea, don’t get your hopes too high – just look at the telenovela that is the on, off, maybe, off, on again KL-SG HSR.

Source: https://paultan.org/2022/03/18/malaysia-mulling-kl-bangkok-high-speed-rail-project/