This, however, will likely alleviate air congestion at Singapore’s Changi airport.
A report in The Diplomat says low cost carriers (LCCs) will likely bear the brunt of the HSR.
It notes that the Singapore Changi-KL International Airport route is the third largest international route, largely dominated by LCCs.
According to a Straits Times report, people travelling from Singapore to KL pay between S$25 (RM77) and S$50 for a five-hour bus ride, about S$80 (RM256) for a 45-minute budget flight, and about S$250 (RM773) for a full-service flight.
Malaysia’s Land Public Transport Commission chief executive officer Mohd Nur Ismal Mohamed Kamal was reported as saying in May 2015 that a round trip from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore on the HSR link was expected to cost users less than RM400.
The Diplomat report says: “It remains to be seen if existing operators can continue to remain profitable.”
It adds that though the HSR is expected to change the nature of transport between Singapore and KL, the extent of its impact is very much dependent on ticket prices and the frequency of its services.
The HSR was formalised at the 7th Malaysia-Singapore Leaders’ Retreat last Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur.
The HSR will cut travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to just 90 minutes. Currently, the journey takes between four and six hours by overland coach, and 70 minutes by flight. When transit times are factored in, the HSR is likely to yield time savings of up to 2 hours.
Construction of the HSR is expected to start in 2018, with the system in operation by 2026.
The HSR, according to the report in The Diplomat, can potentially reduce the number of flights, thus freeing up precious runway and terminal space to accommodate new airlines and new routes at Changi Airport.
According to the Centre for Aviation, Singapore’s Changi airport has been increasingly congested in recent years, with a flight between Changi airport and KLIA taking off every 20 minutes, from 6am to 10pm.
While this bodes well for Changi Airport’s plans to augment its lead as an aviation hub, the report adds, direct connectivity between Singapore and Malaysia could also increase competition between the two hubs that serve a similar pool of passengers transiting in Southeast Asia.
The report goes on to mention several other ways in which the HSR will benefit the two nations.