United States is not the only one who lags behind in building high speed rail. Malaysia announced this week that it will put on hold the proposed bullet train link between its capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the city-state, Singapore.
Costing 8 billion ringits ($2.5 billion US), the bullet train project would have reduced the current six and a half hour trip to ninety minutes. The two cities are only 300 km apart. The current railway uses meter-gauge tracks (tracks are much closer together) and many sections are single-tracked. The speed is very limited.
The Malaysian government decided to cancel the high speed rail project due to the high cost of construction.
Photo of Malaysian railway by flickr user yeowatzup. Used under Creative Commons License 2.0.
