Malaysia says "misquoted" on high-speed rail terminus

Malaysia's Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) said it was misquoted in media reports that it wanted the upcoming high-speed rail (HSR) to end in Johor Baru rather than in Jurong East in Singapore, reported the Strait Times on Friday.

SPAD responded in a statement saying it actually prefers to have the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur high-speed rail (HSR) end in Singapore's central business district a few hours after its Singaporean counterpart issued a strongly worded statement.

Mohamad Nur Ismal Kamal, CEO of SPAD, was "regrettably misquoted", according to the Malaysian transport agency's statement. It clarified that Mohamad Nur had said "We would have preferred to terminate the line at the CBD area. This will be closer to Orchard Road than Jurong East. However this is a joint project for the benefit of both countries and hence there has to be give and take."

The CEO of SPAD had said that if they wanted to terminate at Johor Bahru's CIQ (customs, immigration and quarantine), the entire HSR project will be within their borders and Malaysia will have more control, which would not have been optimal and neither country would have benefited as much.

Singapore's Ministry of Transport (MOT) had earlier released a statement stating it was "surprised" at Malaysian's preference for the HSR terminus to be located at Johor Bahru's CIQ complex.

Leaders of the two countries announced that the HSR terminus in Singapore will be located at Jurong East in May. The HSR project between Singapore and Malaysia was agreed upon in 2013, which aims to cut down on travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to just 90 minutes. Endi