CHINA's Minstry of Railways has allocated funding to start work on its share of the Trans-Asia rail link in 2003. This will allow upgrading of the 660 km metre-gauge Kunming - Hekou line, which forms part of the 5600 km corridor to Singapore via Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia (RG 1.01 p10).

On July 1 CR's Kunming Regional Director Zheng Jiandong told an Asean regional meeting in Malaysia that studies were underway to improve the steep and sharply-curved route. One option being considered is to build a 143 km standard-gauge cut-off and regauge a further 142 km of the existing line. The aim is to boost speeds to 80 km/h, cutting the journey time from Kunming to the Vietnam border from 24 to 9h. Capacity improvements would raise freight capacity significantly.

At the southern end of the corridor, China Railway Engineering Corp has been selected for a US$144m contract to double-track a 270 km section of the Malaysian main line between Seremban and Johor, allowing 180 km/h.