Singapore and Malaysian rapid transit link by 2018
The Singapore and Malaysian governments plan to open a rapid transit link between the city-state and the neighboring city of Johor Bahru in Malaysia’s south by 2018, both governments said in a joint statement on today.
“The terminating stations of the (rapid transit system) link will be in the vicinity of JB Sentral, Johor Bahru and in the vicinity of Republic Polytechnic, Singapore,” the statement said.
“It is targeted that the RTS link will be operational by 2018. The RTS link will have a co-located (customs, immigration and quarantine) facility in Singapore and another co-located CIQ facility in Johor Bahru so that commuters need to clear immigration only once for each way of travel.”
The announcement comes as Malaysia and Singapore officially sealed the Points of Agreement (POA) on Malayan railway land in Singapore.
The signing ceremony took place in Putrajaya, Malaysia today.
Both prime ministers also reiterated their commitments towards further strengthening bilateral relations.
Trains are a great, comfortable way to travel and are often a scenic way of seeing a country. Just make sure it’s first class!
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There is an excellent opportunity now to build a new high speed MRT line from the Woodlands terminus to the city centre using the alignment of the soon to be closed section of railway and connecting to the existing MRT line under Tanjong Pagar which currently has no station between Outram and Sentosa gateway. A new underground Tanjong Pagar station could be built as part of the redevelopement of that site.