The Cross-Border Railways Bill was introduced in the Parliament on October 3 to support the functioning of two future rail links between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Introduced by the Second Minister for transport Ng Chee Meng, this Bill will provide operators authorization to run train services and maintain railway assets also entitling the government to terminate these cross-border services if the safety of the travellers is prone to risks due to malfunction or terror attacks.
Expected to reduce travel time between the two cites to 90 minutes, the High-speed Rail (HSR) will stretch a span of 350 km and is aimed at being ready for use by the end of 2026.
As stated by The Straits Times, a spokesperson for the Singapore Transport Ministry said that the Bill will support the construction, operation and regulation of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail according to a bilateral agreement signed in December last year. The Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System link will also be supported under the Bill after Singapore and Malaysia sign another bilateral agreement towards the end of this year, he added.
Planned to link Woodlands North station on Thomson-East Coast's future Mass Rapid Transit line with Johor's Bukit Chagar is expected to be ready for use by the end of the year 2024.
Singapore Mass Rapid Transit and Prasarana Malaysia on September signed a memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture company in order to finance, build and operate the cross-border MRT line.
The duo will call a joint tender to assign an Assents Company for the HSR project for designing, building, financing and maintaining stocks which include track-work, power and signaling systems, later this year.
