HSR cannot be cheaper
if u priced it cheaper, it's gonna be an even worse bailout

like i mentioned many times before, almost no HSR in this world break even...all will need bailout
but malaysians keep wanting it built here

it's a nice thing to have if you have extremely excess amount of money like china

objective is how rich are you as a country

even in china where some routes doesn't make sense to take plane...dominated by HSR, still can lose money, still need bailout
even in taiwan..this is literally the most successful one i saw, north to south with insane frequency everyday...almost every trip is full, still lose money

so the real question to ask is are you rich enough to keep bailout or not, if the answer is yes...thn build it

and look at where KKM is right now
exactly in that situation

same lah...own or different, all making lose...all require bailout

HSR itself is never making money no matter how frequent the trip is per day, how full the train is

2 things that made china different

1. they have excessive amount of money to bailout
2. they needed it for their peak season like CNY...else their transport system would meltdown

yeah but that "crowd" is nothing compared to CNY or golden week

you can't
u have to make sure every inch of the train is safe enough to do 300-400KM/H every single trip

that's the majority of the cost right there
and that also includes manpower...engineer and those who worked onboard, everything is cost

don't even think about breaking even the cost of building it...cost of maintenance/operation cost already very high
if really don't care everything, maybe can consider operating like air india

This post has been edited by MR_alien: Aug 21 2025, 11:56 AM