After more than two years that the border between Singapore
and Johor Bahru has been closed or shall we say restricted, today (April 30,
2022) will be the last day for the Vaccinated Travel Bus Service or commonly known
as VTBS.
Looking back on history, the border was closed in March 2020 as part of the actions from both government bodies (Malaysia
and Singapore) to curve the spread of the Pandemic Covid19.
We cannot deny the fact that this has greatly impacted the economy
of both countries and we believe it is also the same with other countries as
well.
In November 29, 2021, the government has finally re-opened
the cross-border journey through the
land Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) scheme. Under this scheme, two public transport service providers were
selected. From Malaysia, the service provder is known as the yellow smiling bus (Causeway Link) while from Singapore is called the Transtar.
The trips were only for the First Link and the pick-up and drop-off points are only in Queens Street as well
as Woodlands in Singapore while Larkin Sentral Bus Terminal in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia.
There were a lot of requirements needed which make the
travelling not so easy for everyone. The seats are also limited in accordance
to the protocols from both governments. From this stage, we saw that a lot has been complaining due to the difficulty of obtaining the VTL ticket.
On April 1, 2022, the VTL has been transitioned
to Vaccination Travel Bus Services (VTBS) which still need to be booked online but with more allocated quota per day and with lesser requirement compared to
VTL.
Today, April 30, 2022, is the last day of this VTBS and the border has finally opened for the regular
bus services for both First Link and Second Link by tomorrow (May 1, 2022).
With the implementation of the regular cross-border bus services,
you might want to check from all those service providers as we noticed that there
had been an increase in their bus fares.
Just to remind everyone, the bus fare departing from Malaysia
to Singapore must be paid in Malaysia Ringgit while the trips from Singapore to
Malaysia must be paid in Singapore Dollar.
As the border opened for regular cross-border passengers,
wearing of facemask inside the busses as well as in indoor places are required.
Meanwhile, on behalf of Jomtaralets team, we would
also like to take this opportunity to say thank you to those people who worked
behind this VTL and VTBS. You guys are amazing. Thank you for your service.
