Rail link to make S'pore, KL 'one virtual urban community'

THE proposed high-speed rail link between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore will transform two cities into "one virtual urban community", said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.

Evoking the way London and Paris have been made "twin cities" via the Eurostar train, he said a high-speed link allows people to live in one and work in the other.

Parisians and Londoners "can go up there, do business, meet friends, have a meal - and come back all the way at the end of the day," he said at a joint press conference with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak yesterday.

Examples closer to home are the high-speed train networks that connect Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan, and the major cities of China, he said.