'High speed rail link to change overall Malaysia, S'pore tourism landscape'.

Date: 22 February 2013

'High speed rail link to change overall Malaysia, S'pore tourism landscape'.

SINGAPORE: Additional connectivity via the High Speed Rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore will see overall changes in the tourism landscape of Malaysia and Singapore, said Tourism Malaysia director for Singapore, Noor Ainee Ismail.

She said: "The additional connectivity is foreseen to  change the overall tourism setting of both countries. Especially the Malaysian tourism sector, we are positive of seeing a growth in the number of arrivals. It may also encourage the current day-trippers (to Johor Baru) who have time-constraints to explore further destinations such as Kuala Lumpur itself," she told Bernama.

At the Malaysia-Singapore Leaders' Retreat 2013 in Singapore on Tuesday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib  Razak and his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong agreed to build the High-Speed Rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, expected to be completed by 2020.

With the new transport system, it is expected to take only 90 minutes to travel from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur and vice-versa.

According to Noor Ainee, the high speed train will not just see the increase of arrivals into Kuala Lumpur alone. "We are certain that there will be spill-overs to other nearby states such as Perak, Kedah and Pahang," she said.

When asked whether, the rail link would have an impact to other mode of transport, Noor Ainee replied: "Some travellers’ travelling pattern will definitely change when given the option of the high speed train as it serves as a solution to a few issues that may be encountered in travelling (from Singapore) to Kuala Lumpur or beyond.

Citing travelling via road (coach/self-drive), she said travellers may think of encountering traffic congestion, long travelling hours or safety aspects of self-drive. Travelling via flights, for instance, she said the airport might be far from the city, transfer to airport from the city would take approximately 1.5 hours by road, whilst prices were subject to fluctuation    Quoting a poll conducted by Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Noor Ainee said:" CNA in getting viewers’ choice of transportation with the new high speed train being an option, 89 per cent out of 117 respondents preferred the new option.

She pointed out that the rail link could also be an opportunity for local coach companies to explore other business models that could complement the new rail link and expand their services to further destinations in Malaysia. Besides that, she said coach companies would still have an edge over the rest in terms of cost. - BERNAMA

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