Fast Track

Earlier this week France unveiled a new super-fast train called AGV (automotrice à grande vitesse) intended to succeed the current TGV. This new train, which has already been ordered to be used in Italy, can travel at up to 360kph. By installing engines underneath each car rather than only underneath locomotives at either end, Alstom makes the train not only faster, but also more energy efficient than the TGV (and no doubt more expensive too!)

Apart from my interest in war machines, I actually have a small thing for trains too, so I thought “Hey, why can’t we have it here?”

A high speed intercity rail service linking the west coast cities Butterworth, Alor Star, Ipoh, Seremban, and Johor Bahru with Kuala Lumpur can stimulate further development in the cities. Even greater benefit can be gained if we extend the service all the way to Singapore. Undoubtedly, the cost will be too high for the government to finance, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot allow private corporations to undertake the project if they want to.

This brings into mind YTL’s proposal to build a high speed train link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Many people objected to it, which I can’t really see one good reason why. Definitely there wouldn’t have been as much opposition if the proposal was to build a high speed train service from Kuala Lumpur or Butterworth to Bangkok.

I was told that in the previous administration, private companies undertaking so-called mega projects were given a government guarantee, basically providing for the government to take over the project in the event the companies went into financial difficulties. Anybody can tell that such guarantees only encourage moral hazard. The present administration has supposedly stopped the practice. So, if a company were to embark on the project as a pure private venture, why not?

I’d really like to see us building an intercity Maglev train service, but that’s really pushing it, so the AGV will do.

:P

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UPDATE: I finally managed to watch Arranged yesterday after having finished downloading the movie ages ago and really enjoyed it. It seems I ended up spending the Chinese New Year holiday catching up on previously downloaded movies and television shows, which was taking up a lot of space on the hard drive.