There’s good news for frequent travellers from Johor Bahru to Singapore as ministers from both countries have just announced a starting date for the new cross-border MRT system. However, the service is only expected to start by end of December 2024, according to Channel News Asia.
Source: Taxi Singapore
The agreement for the rail service, which will be known as the Singapore-Johor Baru Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link will be inked by December 2017, as the ministers from both countries released a joint statement after the 13th meeting of the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee for Iskandar Malaysia.
The RTS Link is meant to reduce the notorious congestion faced by commuters who travel regularly across the border as it is able to carry up to 10,000 passengers each direction every hour. Yay, less traffic jams! The statement also said that the RTS Link will replace the existing KTMB Tebrau shuttle once it starts operating.
Source: Straits Times
To cope with the current demand, the KTMB Tebrau service had increased its daily trips from 14 to 26 to ease some of the congestion.
Singapore has informed that their RTS station will be located at the Woodlands North station, which will then connect with the Thomson-East Coast MRT line while the station in Malaysia will be located at Bukit Chagar.
The co-chairing ministers, Singapore’s Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan and Malaysia’s Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan hashed out further details about the new train service that was announced in 2010.
Source: AsiaOne
In order to encourage bilateral cooperation, both countries have agreed to jointly appoint an operating company to design, build, finance, operate, maintain and renew the RTS Link operating assets like trains, tracks and systems. Hence, Prasarana and SMRT are looking into forming a joint venture company to be the RTS Link operating company.
However, an individual company for each country will be hired to fund, build, own, maintain and upgrade the civil infrastructure and stations within their own countries.
Source: Channel News Asia
Once the service commences, it will run through a high bridge across the Straits of Johor to connect both countries.
In addition, the ministers also discussed about the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High Speed Rail line, which will be ready in 2026, and other ways to reduce the headache-inducing traffic jams that happen across the borders.
Let’s hope that those horrible congestion at the causeway will soon be a thing of the past!
Also read: 9 Cool Things You Should Know About MRT’s New Sungai Buloh-Kajang Line
