Planned as Southeast Asia’s first cross-border high-speed rail system, the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) line was designed to transform regional mobility between two major economic centers.
Through multiple design and engineering programs across Malaysia and Singapore, we helped the cities’ high-speed rail authorities develop the technical foundation for a network intended to connect the cities in approximately 90 minutes at speeds of up to 350 km/h. The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail was envisioned as a landmark transportation project linking Kuala Lumpur and Singapore through a 350-kilometer alignment with seven stations in Malaysia and one in Singapore. Designed as the first inter-country high-speed rail service in Southeast Asia, the network was intended to provide an alternative to air and road travel while contributing to regional decarbonization ambitions.
Although the railway was subsequently paused, its development required extensive planning, coordination, and engineering across both countries. Working with agencies in Malaysia and Singapore, we contributed to several key programs that helped establish the railway’s reference designs and technical standards.
Coordinating infrastructure across borders
A central challenge for the proposed rail line was creating a seamless connection between two national rail systems while maintaining consistent engineering standards across the international boundary. Our specialist high-speed rail teams were appointed by MyHSR Corporation Sdn. Bhd., the agency established by the Malaysian government as Reference Design Consultant for Package 06 (RDC06). This included the alignment from the southern end of Iskandar Puteri Station, the final station in Malaysia, to the international boundary with Singapore. This section included all infrastructure works along the corridor, as well as the Malaysian portion of the bridge crossing the straits to Singapore, encompassing earthworks, road realignments, access roads, emergency escape routes and related civil infrastructure required for high-speed rail operations.
At the same time, our teams worked closely with colleagues in Singapore, where the Land Transport Authority (LTA) appointed an AECOM-led consortium as lead consultant for the Advanced Engineering Study (AES) covering the Singapore section of the route. Coordination between the two programs focused on ensuring compatibility across the international crossing, including the standardization of the straits crossing viaduct superstructure and substructure. By aligning design approaches across both jurisdictions, these studies helped establish a coordinated engineering framework for one of the region’s most ambitious transportation proposals.
Integrating multidisciplinary design at scale
The scale of the proposed HSR network created a further challenge: integrating station design, rail systems, structures and supporting infrastructure across multiple locations while maintaining the performance requirements of a railway designed to operate at very high speeds.
In Singapore, the Advanced Engineering Study addressed approximately 15 kilometers of the route extending from the international boundary to Jurong East Station. The study encompassed the Jurong East terminal station, including immigration and quarantine (CIQ) facilities, a cripple siding facility, four ventilation buildings and ancillary infrastructure. It also included tunnels, vent shafts and escape structures, with double-bored tunnels extending approximately 8 kilometers. For the crossing between Singapore and Malaysia, the design incorporated a 2.6-kilometer viaduct across the Strait of Johor and the existing highway, including an extradosed bridge.
Together, these engineering studies and reference designs provided the level of technical definition needed to support future project development and implementation planning.
Enabling high-speed, sustainable regional mobility
The planned cross-border high-speed rail system’s overarching objective was to create a new transportation option between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore that could strengthen regional connectivity while providing an alternative to existing travel modes. The proposed network was designed to span approximately 350 kilometers along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, with 335 kilometers in Malaysia and 15 kilometers in Singapore. Stations were planned for Bandar Malaysia, Putrajaya, Seremban, Ayer Keroh, Muar, Batu Pahat, Iskandar Puteri and Jurong East.
Operating at speeds of up to 350 km/h, the railway was designed to reduce travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to approximately 90 minutes. These performance targets required careful integration of stations, civil infrastructure, tunnels, bridges and cross-border facilities into a single high-speed system.
Through our work on RDC06, RDC02 and the Advanced Engineering Study, we helped the Malaysian and Singapore authorities develop the engineering foundation for a rail corridor designed to support faster regional travel and create opportunities for a lower-carbon transportation alternative.