Pakatan Harapan MPs have rebutted Putrajaya's examples of other railway projects which it said disproves the opposition's claim that the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) was the "most expensive in the world".

In a joint statement, Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli, Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua and Kuala Krai MP Hatta Ramli said the examples provided by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan varied vastly from the ECRL project.

Abdul Rahman has highlighted the 57km rail project in Switzerland costing RM50 billion (RM860 million per km), the 177km rail line in Madrid-Valladolid, Spain costing RM22.5 billion (RM123 million per km), and the 48km rail project in Barcelona costing RM33.3 billion (RM697 million per km).

These, Abdul Rahman had said, were far more expensive than the 688km ECRL project at RM55 billion, which translated to around RM80 million per km.

However, the Harapan MPs said these rail projects are incomparable to Malaysia’s ECRL.

"Rahman perhaps didn’t realise that the 57km Swiss Gothard rail project costing a whopping RM50 billion actually involved the building of the world’s longest tunnel, as deep as 2.3km below the surface.

"The neighbouring 56km Brenner rail project, which is currently under construction and costing just a shade less than Gothard, will be the second longest tunnel in the world when it’s completed in 2025.

"Similarly, the Barcelona line costing US$8.12 billion has a length of 47.8km, of which 43.71km is underground and 4.9km is on viaducts.

"Is the minister telling us that the 688km ECRL link from Port Klang to Kota Bahru via Kuantan will be, if not completely, substantially underground to compare with the Swiss rail lines underneath the Alps?" Rafizi, Pua and Hatta asked in their statement.

‘Selling a turboprop at the price of a Boeing 747’

They added that even the 177km Madrid-Valladoid line was only the first phase of the two-phase Madrid-Leon 342km rail line costing a total of RM26 billion, which is RM76 million per km, and cheaper than the ECRL.

"All of the examples cited by Rahman are not only tunnel-intensive, they are all high-speed rail (HSR) projects which, as we know cost significantly more than conventional rail projects like the ECRL.

"These European HSRs travel up to a top speed of 300km per hour, compared to the ECRL project proposed at 170km per hour.

"Hence, what the ignorant Rahman attempted to do, intentionally or otherwise, is to try to sell Malaysians an ATP turboprop at the price of a Boeing 747. Unfortunately for him, Malaysians are not that stupid," they said.

The Harapan MPs said Abdul Rahman did not need to go around the world to justify the cost of the ECRL, as he only needed to look at similar projects at home.

"He should very well know that the 329km Ipoh-Padang Besar and 179km Gemas-Johor Bahru double-tracking links cost RM44 million and RM39.8 million per kilometre respectively.

"Amazingly, projects, such as the Ipoh-Padang Besar and Rawang-Ipoh links were all completed by local engineering and construction companies.

"We challenge Dato’ Seri Rahman Dahlan to show proof that a conventional railway project would cost anything more than the above, or that there are no local companies with the necessary expertise able to complete the ECRL project for far less than the RM55 billion awarded to China Communications Construction Company," they said.

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