Malaysia urges Thailand to revive Pan-Asia rail links instead of chasing land bridge dream

The aim is to upgrade Rantau Panjang into a key connection point along a Pan-Asian rail network, a once-distant dream that appears closer than ever to becoming a reality.

Built over a century ago in 1921, the ‘Friendship Bridge’ between Rantau Panjang in Malaysia and the town of Su-ngai Kolok in Thailand, is just 65 metres (213 feet) long.

But the gap also represents competing visions for the connectivity of the Mekong and the Malay Peninsula.

On Malaysia’s side, the plan is to construct the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) from the shipping hub of Port Klang on the west coast to the eastern states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, replacing an obsolete colonial-era line with the latest rail infrastructure built by Chinese companies.

It would be the penultimate step towards a Kunming-Singapore railway, crossing Laos, Thailand and Malaysia at speeds of up to 160km/h, and a chance to seamlessly bind the regional economies of hundreds of millions of people along the network.

A line already cuts through Laos and – after years of arm-wrestling over price and rail type – Thailand is laying tracks running south to Bangkok.

But the neck of the country leading to Malaysia is the missing piece southwards.

For now, Thailand – which is central to a Pan-Asian rail route through its territory with borders straddling Laos and Malaysia – has other priorities.

His proposal – if realised – potentially poses a major economic threat to Malaysia and Singapore, whose ports are situated along one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

The route carries around 30 per cent of the world’s trade.

By the end of the decade, this number is projected to rise to 50 per cent, with shipping expected to exceed handling capacity as China knits more tightly into