With the reopening of the causeway, Singaporeans and Malaysians alike have all jumped on the opportunity to finally travel back to our neighbouring country after two years.
25 Per Cent Increase in Human Traffic
Last weekend saw some 436,800 travellers crossing the land borders between Singapore and Malaysia, due to the long Good Friday weekend.
This number was almost 25 per cent more compared to the number of people crossing the land border between Friday and Sunday in the previous week.
On Thursday (14 Apr) evening, a surge in traffic occurred and snaking queues were observed outside the Woodlands Checkpoint, with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) processing 112,700 departures on that day itself.
This is the highest number of daily departures recorded since the borders fully reopened to travellers vaccinated against COVID-19 on 1 April.
More People Entering Than Leaving
Between Friday and Sunday, a total of 242,500 travellers arrived via the Causeway or the Second Link, said ICA.
79,200 arrived either by bus or on foot, 105,300 by cars and 58,000 on motorcycles.
Meanwhile, there were 194,300 departures from Singapore comprising 61,900 travellers by bus or on foot, 77,600 by cars and 54,800 on motorcycles.
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Coping with Crowd
Long queues were seen outside Woodlands Checkpoint on Thursday evening and Friday morning.
To cope with the influx of travellers over the holiday weekend, ICA implemented a few measures.
At Woodlands Checkpoint, where travellers walking or taking the bus would have to go through, police and ICA officers were deployed to maintain order.
On Friday morning, ICA temporarily redirected some of the public buses into the Woodlands Checkpoint’s bus concourse. This allowed passengers to enter the checkpoint directly, without having to queue outside the checkpoint in heavy rain.
“At the car and motorcycle clearance zones, ICA officers on the ground were able to make flexible adjustments and deployments quickly, based on real-time demand of each conveyance mode,” added ICA.
It also attributed the fast pace of clearing immigration to travellers being prepared with their documents.
Pre-COVID Travelling
Before the pandemic, about 415,000 people used the Causeway and Second Link daily, making the Causeway one of the world’s busiest land crossings.
Currently, the number of travellers is still significantly lower than pre-pandemic levels. However, a sense of normality has been restored to the two land checkpoints since April.
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Vehicular traffic has largely remained at manageable levels at the Causeway and Second Link as there is still a backlog of Malaysian vehicle owners waiting for their vehicle entry permits to be processed.
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Featured Image: Facebook (Wei Ern)
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