The Trans-Borneo Rail

Oni wat otto doik kereta opui?

I was once interviewed for a government position and it was the one that I didn't get, ahahaha. Coz as of this moment, I don't think I have any speck of interest to work as a government servant anymore. So the interview was in the form of a Structured Interview and it was meant for a **41 level. I was called for the interview about seven months after working at where I am working now.

This particular government interview involved 3 session, and it was somewhat like this:

• Get to know YOU interview (then morning tea break)
• Get to know WHAT YOU KNOW interview (then lunch)
• An ESSAY & PRESENTATION session (then afternoon tea break)

The total number of tea breaks and the duration of time it took for each tea break was already typical of the government working experience. Hahaha!

Here, I'd just like to highlight one particular session, which is the essay and presentation. I was given a series of questions and I was asked to pick which one I'd like to answer. I chose to answer this question (or meant closely to this, coz I couldn't remember the actual question word by word):

"If you were the Chief Minister of Sarawak, what would you plan to do in making Sarawak a developed state in accordance with Vision 2020?"

First thought that crossed my mine when I saw this, I was like "Are you kidding me?!!". There is no way anyone other than 'he whose name cannot be said' to be CM la! Hahaha. But really, instead of being inside a pressure cooker trying it, I was having a ball of fun!

The idea and focus of my essay was driven by one thing - the economy behind transportation and human migration. I am a firm believer that the ability to move easily from one place to another is an economic catalyst, anywhere. For Sarawak to enjoy a status of a developed state, it has to have the ability to distribute development to people accross the region, OR allow people to relocate and move to more developed areas.

In my eyes, even if you still live in a longhouse in the middle of nowhere, but technology and infrastructure (road, water, electricity & internet) is there for you, then I believe that is development. However, everything always works from the ground up, a primary set of infrastructure has to be developed first before other infrastructures can come in. So to me, step number one to achieving developed state status at a higher rate by 2020 is by creating fast & easy connectivity between towns and divisions in Sarawak. By connecting places, you connect people.

Now, what you are about to read is something that came solely from my thoughts and I have never studied economics in any way my entire life, other than learning Keusahawanan subject in Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu classes during secondary school and the Entrepreneurhip (ETR) course in my university. So in terms of actual definitions and terminology, I might be making a lot of things up. But the idea is there because the idea itself was based on what I believed. So actual economists, do bear with me on this.

Before I continue, I would like affirm my copyright over this idea. I am therefore, announcing that I own sole proprietorship to this idea and every one of you fellow readers who reads this blog post are witnesses that this idea is mine. Do confirm it in the comments section so that next time when I sue someone who's copying or plagiarising this idea, I can give you a little bit of the bounty. So that's all good for everyone right? It's basically earning money out of nothing. Hahahaha!

Here we go:

The Trans-Borneo Rail (I now own copyright to this name & idea)

  

Can you imagine riding one of these?

The population creates a market...for anything - services, retail, housing and etc... So if you can increase the mobility of a population, your market increases. Because mobility allows easy access for people to get form one place to another. I believe that a rail network provides the following advantages:

• Carries more people and cargo
• Undisrupted connection between points
• Environmentally friendler (compared to planes and cars)
• Still higher safety standards than driving on roads

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about the same trains used by Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) today, which is conventional rail. I am talking about those high-speed trains or 'maglevs', similar to those in Europe and China. You don't know what's a MAGLEV? It stands for magnetic-levitation. These are the type of trains that float over their track using elecrtomagnetism, which gives them zero friction on the tracks. Due to that, these maglev trains can move (technically, they fly!) over these tracks for over 200 kilometers per hour (kph)! In truth, it can actually go up to 300 kph (and more) but let's just assume for now that the safety range is 200 kph, ok?

So imagine a train, travelling at 200 kph and stopping and all major towns and cities located along the existing road between Miri and Kuching. Temporarily, I'm excluding Limbang just to make the calculations easy and to avoid including Brunei in this stage of my imagination, hahaha. This means I can go from Miri to Bintulu in just an hour and from Miri to Kuching will only take me 4 hours. If I consider the train stopping at Bintulu, Sibu, Sarikei, Betong, Sri Aman, and Serian for about 10 minutes each, the journey to Kuching from Miri may take slightly over 5 hours only!

For those of you who have never travelled by land from Miri to Kuching, I assure that if you drive before sundown from Miri, it'll be broad daylight by the time you reach Kota Sentosa. It averages 12 hours by road! Just compare that with 5 hours by train! If I hop on a train at 6.00 a.m., I can still arrive in Kuching at 11.00 a.m., attend a meeting, have lunch, hop back on a train back at 1.30 p.m. and arrive in Miri again at about 7.00 p.m. So, don't tell me the possibility to travel like that is not attractive. It is, right?! In trains, you can sit, lie down, walk, and maybe provide a carriage that hosts a canteen. People can sleep comfortably, or even do their work on the go. Don't you think that is great?!

I sure hell did, and in fact, even the interviewers thought the idea was great. But then, they made a reality check by saying that Sarawak's deep peat and hilly terrain makes it almost impossible to achieve that. You know what I think after they said that? Bullshit! How can YOU say it is impossible? We've sent men to the moon, we've sent people into the Mariana Trench, and Sarawak has built one of the world's largest dams! Damn! If that is YOUR way of thinking, then it makes me lost ALL interest to work in the civil service. So at that point, I realized whether I pass the interview or not, it doesn't matter. Coz even if you did offer me the job, I'll say 'no' to it.

Don't tell me something is impossible if you haven't tried to prove that it's impossible. I think the terrain and ground conditions is still a do-able challenge. Otherwise, the huge pipeline project connecting Bintulu to Sabah right now wouldn't have gone underway. So in terms of terrain, I doubt that it is an actual problem. Many countries and organizations have built train lines in some of the toughest ground conditions in the world, I don't think they are not able to handle the conditions in our home state.

Money, it might be a problem (it actually shouldn't), but who says you have to build it at one go? Make the Miri - Bintulu connection first and then gradually connect to the other cities. Maybe it can regain some return of investment, when a portion of the project is already up and running and is in use to the public, so money can still be generated even though the contruction for new line to Sibu is in progress.

Stakeholders such as bus companies who may feel that the train line will be a threat to their business, should instead see it as an opportunity. They can merge and become the major investor in the project as a consortium maybe?  That way, they still have a hold on the existing transport business while at the same time expanding it - by having a share in the new rail system.

Did you realise that now it hard for bus companies in Sarawak to get fresh young bus drivers to do the the express bus route (an article about it came out in The Borneo Post a few days ago, I think it was in The Sunday Post). Why not take the maglev project as a chance to reduce the reliance on buses, and bus drivers and even diesel. Isn't that also an advantage for bus companies?  

How about the energy to power the trains? Hahaha, it's powered by electricity...and hello? Who has the biggest and most poweful hydroelectric dam in the region? Us! Sarawak! So is the power supply an issue? No!

Of course these are problems that will arise and there might be a few more, like resistance from landowners when you want to build the maglev's rail ground footing. Oh, by the way, these maglev's don't run on the ground...they run overhead. The tracks are like electricty lines, where they are supported by smaller ground footprints every few metres. So the actual 'ground' work itself is minimal.

I think that if this is a reality, and with ease of connections between various cities in Sarawak, businesses will boom and cities will grow exponentially simply becasue people can move easily statewide. It has social economic impacts beyond anything we can ever experience if we stick to whatever it is we think we already have. And you know what? Who says the maglev line has to stop simply within Sarawak?

Why not connect to Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Lahad Datu and Tawau? Why not connect to Pontianak, Singkawang, Bandjarmasin, Balik Papan, Samarinda and Bontang in Kalimantan (do you guys ever even know these cities exist in Borneo, hahaha)? We always pride ourselves as being the poeple of Borneo..but do even know who lives on the other side, and what the other side of Borneo looks like and feels like? Imagine the effects on tourism. I did name it as The Trans-Borneo Rail, right? So it should cross the whole stretch of the island.

Man, I could go on with this...so I better stop myself before I do. Hahaha. But with what I've written above, I think it's enough to get your imaginations rolling, right? But you know, if there's anyone out there who I would like most to read this idea, it would be Tan Sri Tony Fernandez. Hahaha, so Tony, if you plan on investing in this, do give me a call! Hahaha. 

By the way, just as an additional information, the United States is also embarking on an ambitious maglev project themselves. Take note, trains are not American specialty, they already have great pride in their existing intercity highways and state routes. But is has become apparent that in certain applications and situations, they still gave the maglex system a shot, and they are investing billions in it. They've done a feasibilit study on it and you can read it here http://ntl.bts.gov/DOCS/TNM.html.

Too bad I didn't get the job, NOT!