Back in 2010, Singapore and Malaysian leaders got together for a pow-wow.
While they were drinking mocktails and lounging by the poolside, an idea suddenly came to them.
Hey, your countrymen love coming over to my side to shop, right?
Yeahhhhh, and yours love coming to mine to work.
That’s right. That’s why we’re always getting complaints about how it sucks to just cross a causeway. I mean, it’s good enough we didn’t ask them to swim.
I know, right? There are too many people.
Tell me about it. Eh, oei, I’ve got an idea. How about…
A More Effective Line of Transport?
And so, the idea of Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit Service (JB-SG RTS) was born.
Okay, fine, that’s maybe not exactly how it was born but you get the gist.
And so on Jan 2018, it was announced that in 2024, Singaporeans and Malaysians can look forward to a new Rapid Transit Service running between Johor Bahru and Singapore.
The service is able to bring up to 10,000 passengers in each direction. Every. Single. Hour.
No more traffic jams. No more waiting for four hours just to eat KL-style chee cheong fun.
Except, something went wrong.
Plans Suspended, Might Be Terminated
Here’s a short run-through on what happened after:
- End-May 2018, Malaysia’s new Transport Minister Loke Siew Fook mention that Malaysia remains committed to the project.
- Mid-July 2018, Singapore Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said that we had not heard anything official from the new Malaysian government.
- End-July 2018, Loke Siew Fook expressed hope that the project would proceed as planned and that the Malaysian cabinet has given in-principle approval to the project.
- 13 October 2018, Singapore’s Land Transport Authority called for a tender for constructing a 1.1km tunnel and overhead bridge to Johor in end-September 2018. Construction scheduled to begin mid-2019.
- 14 January 2019, Khaw Boon Wan said the project is not progressing well, with Malaysia missing deadlines. Deadlines were extended until September 2018, then December 2018, then February 2019.
- 8 April 2019, announcement that Singapore and Malaysia working to temporarily suspend the project for 6 months.
And on 21 May 2019, after all of that, it is officially suspended until 30 September 2019.
And Now, There’s Been An Update
Almost two years after the announcement of the new RTS, 4 months after the announcement of the suspension, there’s been an update.
Malaysia will (finally) come to a decision on the JB-SG RTS by 31 Oct 2019.
Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke told the media that the RTS was mentioned in the Budget for year 2020, which is an indication of the government’s support for the project.
However, it cannot be confirmed yet as the main scope will only be discussed and decided on within the next two weeks.
He said that he is “extremely confident” that there’ll be a resolution by the end of Oct 2019 and added they will work towards the deadline.
So if you’re hoping that your weekly trip into JB will no longer be plagued with hours and hours of waiting time, just pray and hope for the best.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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