The Channel Tunnel was perhaps the most ambitious, controversial and complex project ever taken by mankind as far as rail transportation is concern. The challenge was in linking two nations separated by sea – beneath English Channel. The Channel Tunnel which is also known as Eurotunnel is the second-longest rail tunnel in the world, with the Seikan Tunnel in Japan being longer, but the undersea section of the Channel Tunnel, at 37.9 km (23.55 miles), is the longest undersea tunnel in the world.

It was reported that the tunnel cost nearly 6 times more than expected to build and debts were around £6.2billion and after several false starts it was finally completed in 1994, linking London with Paris and Brussels. A journey through the tunnel lasts about 20 minutes with the Eurostar trains travel at 160 km/h even although their maximum speed was 300 km/h. The same technology in tunnelling the undersea was used by Malaysian’s SMART project.
But Malaysia is not going to undertake such an ambitious project itself, not that it has the capability to do so. Rather, the nation might be building one of the fastest and luxurious trains linking the capital Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. YTL Corporation Berhad’s (KLSE: YTL, stock-code 4677) which has submitted the proposal for a bullet train between KL-Singapore to the government is confident of securing the project, group managing director Tan Sri Francis Yeoh Sock Ping said today.

Taking the cue from the London-Paris Eurostar which had increased the land and properties’ value in the cities, Francis Yeoh is betting (or justifying) that the same proposal could create the same impact. He further mentioned that the 700 percent difference in property value between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur could be reduced to 260 percent of which will translate to RM5 billion in property values.

Property appreciation aside, it would be wonderful to think of the prospect of able to travel by bullet train from KL to Singapore within a short time-span. Shopping at Singapore anyone?

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December 6th, 2007 by financetwitter

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