bzcat wrote:Plus as someone already noted, you can't connect SIN by high speed rail to CGK, DPS or HKT. Flying is the only feasible way to connect a lot of city pairs in ASEAN region for the foreseeable future. More so than Europe or North America.
Its a phrase quoted to death but still.... Never say never!
Its a stretch but doable to connect SIN to JKT by HSR in the mid to long term future. A series of over-water bridges of not more than 20km length each, southwest across a few Riau islands to Sumatra with stops at Pekanbaru, Jambi, Palembang and Bandar Lampung. Then the short jump to the northwestern tip of Java at Cilegon, and you are soon in sight of Jkt.
From there a future pan-Java HSR could soon be in the pipeline (work already started on the JKT-BDO sector), connecting all the way to Bali.
Ditto for HKT though a little more dicey. The confirmed HSR from SIN to KUL will be on line around 2025. From there on to the Thai border will be a natural development and there's (admittedly not yet concrete) plans for a line through to BKK and beyond to connect to China's Yunnan province. A spur to HKT is not in the realm of fiction.
Of course, these won't be anytime soon; 20 years at the very earliest in the most optimistic eyes but the point is that they are feasible.
The only contention is your definition of "foreseeable". My sight is arguably longer than yours.