Singapore-Malaysia finger pointing on rail delay

The bottomline is that the rail line is unlikely to be operational by 2018 as originally planned.

SINGAPORE: The Ministry of Transport Singapore (MOTS) has clarified that it was not the island but its Malaysian counterpart that was delaying plans for the Rapid Transit System (RTS), a cross-border train line.

It’s unclear who is telling the truth.

The bottomline is that the rail line is unlikely to be operational by 2018 as originally planned.

“Once Malaysia decides where they want their end of the train line, the two countries can then proceed to start a joint engineering study,” said MOTS in a statement carried by The Real Singapore. “It’s not true that MOTS is holding back the RTS plans by failing to finalize plans for where the station is going to be on the Singapore side.”

The MOTS statement was apparently blaming the Malaysian side for pointing fingers at it on the same issue. The Johore Executive Committee Member for Public Works and Rural and Regional Development, Hasni Mohammad, had earlier spoken up on the same issue but blamed Singapore.

“The suggestion that Singapore has been delaying progress on the RTS link is incorrect,” said the MOTS statement. “Singapore informed Malaysia in June 2011 that the RTS terminus in Singapore would be located at Woodlands North near Republic Polytechnic.”

However, to date, Singapore has not received official confirmation of the location of Malaysia’s RTS terminus in Johor Bahru, it added. “We look forward to official confirmation from the Malaysian government on the location of the RTS terminus in Johor Bahru.”

“Singapore remains committed to working closely with Malaysia on the RTS link, which will provide a boost to cross-border connectivity.”