Turning the Burma Road into a railway

Could the Burma Road have been upgraded into a railway using logging-railroad engineers?

Probably; it was one of several railway improvements that could have strengthened the logistics supporting Malaya and Singapore.

The question proposes using logging-railroad expertise to convert or parallel the Burma Road with metre-gauge railway infrastructure. The idea is technically plausible and belongs to a broader set of missed railway improvements in the Far East. Better overland communications would not decide the naval campaign by themselves, but they would make Malaya and Singapore more resilient by moving supplies and reinforcements more reliably. Fleet bases depend on land transport networks beyond the dockyard perimeter.