Some delays on first day of land vaccinated travel lane (VTL) on Singapore to Malaysia route

[ASEAN NOW News]

Passengers aboard the first designated bus at Queen Street Bus Terminal to Malaysia on Nov 29, 2021. There was a delay in the arrival of the first buses from Johor's Larkin Sentral Bus Terminal. Photo Nadhirah Mansor/ Todayi /TODAY

 

SINGAPORE — For many Malaysians in Singapore, the launch of the vaccinated travel lane (VTL) on Monday (Nov 29) between the two countries will mean joyful reunions but for some, it may be a tearful final reunion reported today online.

 

Malaysian Koh Mee Seng, who was on the first bus back to Johor from Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange, said that opening up the land border for vaccinated travellers was a godsend.

 

The 54-year-old was on her way home to visit her 83-year-old mother who is hospitalised with Covid-19.

 

The doctors have warned her family to "prepare for the worst", Ms Koh said, as she teared up several times while speaking to TODAY and waiting to board the 8am bus.

 

Her two teenage children with whom she resides in Singapore used three laptops and three mobile phones to help her book a ticket home.

 

"I hope she can wait for me to be by her side," Ms Koh said.

 

The housewife, who is a long-term pass holder from Malaysia, said that she is also looking forward to seeing her husband and siblings whom she has not seen since borders between both countries closed in March last year.

 

The first bus serving vaccinated passengers on this travel scheme pulled out of the Woodlands interchange at 8am sharp on Monday.

 

Last Wednesday, the two Governments announced that Singapore’s Transtar Travel and Malaysia’s Handal Indah, which is also known as Causeway Link, have been appointed as travel agents to run designated buses between Singapore and Johor Baru.

 

For a start, each operator will make sixteen trips from Malaysia to Singapore and sixteen trips the other way daily, with each bus carrying up to forty-five passengers a trip.

 

Up to 2,880 travellers are expected to travel both ways daily, quite different from the more than 100,000 who used to make their way across the causeway pre-pandemic. However, the Singapore Government has said that it will review the daily quota on a weekly basis.

 

The bus tickets went on sale from 8am last Thursday and passengers must buy their tickets at least three days before the departure date.

 

Quarantine-free travel across the Causeway has been impossible for most travellers since March last year.

 

Vaccinated travellers under this land travel scheme must be citizens, permanent residents, or long-term pass holders of the country that they are entering. They will need to do Covid-19 tests as part of the clearance process.

 

At Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange, passengers for the very first designated bus started arriving as early as 6.30am ahead of the first departure at 8am.

 

The situation was orderly, with passengers queuing at one of the berths to check in at a booth set up by Transtar Travel.

 

They had their documents checked and were issued stickers to indicate that they were travelling on the appointed bus.

 

At 7.30am, passengers were ushered to queue up at another berth as the bus pulled into the bay.

 

Passengers who spoke to TODAY said that the check-in process was smooth. Many were looking forward to visiting loved ones, with some also intending to surprise them.

 

Passengers on the second bus from Woodlands, which departed at 8.40am, also arrived at the bus interchange early in anticipation of their first journey home in a while.

 

Delay at Queen Street

 

Over at Queen Street Bus Terminal, there was a delay in the arrival of the first buses from Johor's Larkin Sentral Bus Terminal.

 

The first bus carrying two passengers, which was supposed to arrive at 9am, pulled up into the terminal at 9.48am and the second, which had one passenger, shortly after at 9.50am.

 

Due to the delay, spare buses that were on standby were deployed at 9.17am and left at 9.28am.

 

Two buses are deployed for each time slot with a capacity of about twenty passengers a bus, seated in the rear of the bus, leaving the front half empty.

 

Mr Lim Han Weng, 69, founder of Causeway Link who was at the bus terminal on Monday morning, said: “The ventilation is better, and passengers would also prefer a more comfortable ride where there is some distance (between seats).

 

“It’s an extra cost to us (to have two buses a slot) but we think of the comfort of the passengers.” 

 

When asked what could have caused the delay, his wife, Madam Bah Kim Lian, 69, said that there could be a number of factors.

 

“It’s the first day so there are bound to be these delays, because previously, there were no documents (passengers had to show), they can just pass through. But from tomorrow it should be okay,” she said.

 

Before boarding the bus, commuters had their bus ticket, antigen rapid test results, vaccination certificate, passport and temperature checked.

 

Staff members present also made sure that they had downloaded the MySejahtera application on their mobile phone.

 

Arriving from Malaysia  

 

Over at Woodlands Checkpoint, Singapore citizens and permanent residents from Malaysia were making their way back to Singapore.

 

The number of travellers who were Singapore-bound appeared to be far fewer than those who departed from Singapore for Malaysia on Monday morning.

 

Two Transtar Travel buses arrived at the checkpoint at 12.50pm on Monday carrying about fifteen passengers each.