Penang's LRT connecting Georgetown to the airport and train station

The Future Southeast Asia Newsletter features transport and urban development news in Southeast Asia, edited by James Clark.

This week’s feature article is about the under-construction Penang LRT. This is an update of an older article when the LRT was known as the Bayan Lepas LRT.

The original plan was for the LRT to connect the historic Georgetown area with the airport. The LRT now includes a link to the future reclaimed island to the south and a rail bridge to the mainland.

The rail bridge will need to be high enough to allow ships to pass through the Penang Strait, so this is going to be an iconic sight. Passengers coming from KL to Butterworth by train will transfer to the LRT and will have a spectacular transit ride across the strait.

The Penang LRT will be the first transit line in Malaysia outside of the Klang Valley (Greater KL). The RTS Link between Johor Bahru and Singapore is being built, but this is a cross-border shuttle with 2 stations. Should this be counted as a transit line?

Either way, Penang will join a rare group of non-capital cities in Southeast Asia that have a transit line of some sort. There is Palembang in Indonesia, and Ho Chi Minh City is now the second city in Vietnam to have a transit line after Hanoi Capital. I thought Thailand would have been quicker to build a line beyond Bangkok, but transit projects in Phuket, Chiang Mai, and Khon Kaen have been put off for years.

Latest posts at Future Southeast Asia

• Mutiara LRT Line: The Penang light rail transit connecting the island to the mainland

The Mutiara LRT Line is an under-construction light rail transit (LRT) system in Penang. The line will run along the east coast of Penang Island from Georgetown to Silicon Island, and from Georgetown to Penang Sentral on the mainland via a bridge across the Penang Strait.

• Southeast Asia Airport Report (2025 Edition)

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News

🇰🇭 Cambodia

• Walking street to open in Phnom Penh at the end of January

"A pedestrian-only zone will be operational along the riverside from Friday to Sunday, as part of wider plans to transform the area into an attractive tourist destination."

• Cambodia’s China-backed canal on Mekong may threaten ‘fragile ecosystems’

• New Special Economic Zone launched in Sihanoukville

• Transforming waste into construction gold: Eco-Bricks build winning formula

• China remains Cambodia’s largest FDI source

🇮🇩 Indonesia

• Unraveling the physics behind severe flash floods in Indonesia's new capital on March 15-16, 2022 (News Release 7-Jan-2025)

• No plan to relocate civil servants to Nusantara soon: Minister

• Japan announces Indonesian projects worth US$815mil on PM Ishiba’s visit

• Housing minister proposes using corruption-seized land for 3 Million Houses Program

• Should Indonesia be ‘very worried’ about Malaysia-Singapore SEZ?

"Experts warn the new economic zone will be a ‘serious threat’ that could exacerbate Indonesia’s struggles to attract top-tier investments."

🇱🇦 Laos

• Nearly three hundred families still await compensation for Laos-China Railway project

• Construction begins on Laos-Viet Nam Friendship Park

🇲🇾 Malaysia

• Berjaya Group draws companies eager to join its HSR consortium

• PIL 1 highway raises fears of undermining LRT in Penang

“Critics warn the RM7.5bil highway could cannibalise ridership of the proposed LRT system.”

• With Singapore SEZ, clock ticking for Johor Baru to develop mass transit system

• Johor’s ART to focus on 3 main corridors, says exco

• Transit Malaysia supports plan to pedestrianise Jalan Bukit Bintang

• Former airbase can be KL’s next green lung

 🇵🇭 Philippines

• Cabinet to focus on 16 major infra projects

"The 16 flagship projects include the North-South Commuter Railway, the Metro Manila Subway Project, the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) Line 4, MRT Line 7, Light Rail Transit Line 1 Extension, the New Cebu International Container Port, the Philippine National Railways South Long Haul, Mindanao Railway, and the New Dumaguete Airport."

• DPWH: EDSA rehabilitation project to start in 2025

• MRT-4 seen to start construction in 2026, budget cuts won't affect projects: DOTr

• LRTA gets P2 billion for early works of LRT-2 extension

“The Light Rail Transit Authority (LRTA) has secured P2 billion to deliver the preliminary works for a project that would extend the Light Rail Transit Line 2 (LRT-2) to the western segment of Manila.”

• Philippines’ car-centric society: time to switch lanes

"Metro Manila’s road congestion woes can be solved. But they have been hampered by slow implementation and weak political will."

• Today I learned: the story of one of the last pockets of green in Pasig City

• PNR eyes reopening of Calamba-Legazpi line

• P12.4 billion allotted for airport modernization in 2025

• Manila airport ranked the world’s worst. Can privatisation deliver a makeover?

• San Miguel removes 7,000 tons of waste from Pampanga River to help mitigate flooding

🇸🇬 Singapore

• LTA seeks solutions to improve road maintenance regime and road construction methods

🇹🇭 Thailand

• EEC board pushes high-speed rail connecting three airports

• New bridge over Chao Phraya open for pedestrian sightseers

• Hat Yai leads Thailand’s list of most congested cities

🇹🇱 Timor-Leste

• Tsuneishi Shipbuilding eyes new shipyard in East Timor

🇻🇳 Vietnam

• $8bln railway project linking 9 northern Vietnam localities set for 2031 completion

“The railway will start from Lao Cai Province, near the Chinese border, to Lach Huyen Port in Hai Phong City, passing through nine provinces and cities, including Hanoi.”

• Problems with capital and unit prices at metro line 2 in Ho Chi Minh City

“Metro Line 2 (Ben Thanh – Tham Luong) in Ho Chi Minh City has 99% of the site cleared, but construction cannot begin in 2025 because the budget has not been allocated and there are problems related to the unit prices of the bid packages.”

• Free trade zone planned at Long Thanh airport

• Hanoi announces plans for nine new Red River bridges to boost connectivity

• Sidewalk driving declines in Ho Chi Minh City on account of heftier fines

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