SINGAPORE: The Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Feb 4) evening that the first Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link Train had arrived in Woodlands North Station earlier that day for a scheduled train demo.
RTSO Train 1’s arrival “marks another major milestone in our journey towards seamless cross-border travel! With final preparations underway, we’re on track for the RTS Link to begin operations by end-2026,” LTA added, noting that people who regularly commute between the two countries may look forward to the journey between Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru and Woodlands North in Singapore taking only five minutes.
RTSO stands for RTS Operations, a joint venture between Prasarana Malaysia and the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) Corporation. The RTS Link will be an important part of the solution to the persistent traffic problems on the Causeway between Singapore and Malaysia, which is used by approximately 300,000 people daily. Travel time for commuters will be cut to just a few minutes on the Link when operations begin.
The RTS Link has the capacity to transport around 10,000 passengers each way. The project is budgeted to cost S$3.24 billion, with Singapore taking on a 61 per cent share of the costs while Malaysia will shoulder the remaining 39 per cent.
The typical travel time between Johor Bahru and Singapore is around 25 minutes to an hour, depending on the mode of transportation, or sometimes even more, when traffic is heavy or when immigration queues are long.
The Bukit Chagar Integrated Immigration, Customs and Quarantine (ICQ) Complex for the RTS link will have100 immigration e-gate lanes, making travel easier.
The much-shortened commute time is a welcome one for people who travel regularly back and forth, based on the reactions, comments and the number of shares the LTA post has.
Each milestone of the project has been greeted with a lot of excitement. In early November, the first train successfully completed off-site system integration testing at the Singapore Railway Test Centre, which SMRT called a crucial step in validating the train system’s overall functionality and identifying potential issues early.
In the same month, the first RTS train arrived at the Wadi Hana Depot in Johor Bahru, which marked the start of the project’s pre-operational phase.
In December, the project hit a major milestone when its full traction power system was energised. /TISG
Read also: RTS Link hits major milestone as full traction power system is energised
