Two-hour delay, ticketing glitches: How my trip from JB to Singapore via the land VTL unfolded
JOHOR BAHRU/SINGAPORE: Since the outset of this year, I have travelled between Malaysia and Singapore iii times and spent 45 days serving mandatory hotel quarantine.
I have had to accept that inconvenience and spending days in isolation were simply the price of travelling during COVID-19.
The prolonged border closures imposed due to the pandemic has made it challenging for me, a Singaporean working in Malaysia, to balance my commitments on both sides of the border.
Spending time in isolation is one affair. For many commuters, including the thousands of Malaysians who work in Singapore, setting aside the money for quarantine expenses is another.
Prior to the VTL, a worker doing a round trip between Malaysia and Singapore via the Periodic Commuting Arrangement scheme would need to pay around Southward$two,700 for quarantine.
For many of them, frequent trips between their home country and their place of employment may be out of reach.
Singapore and Johor are just a couple of kilometres apart, but for them, home feels a earth abroad.
However, the country Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) announced this month represents a feasible quarantine-gratis option for workers to commute for work and run into their loved ones more than oft.
On Monday (Nov 29), the first 24-hour interval the state VTL was launched, I tried out the system to get a sense of how information technology worked, and whether it was a feasible pick that would permit workers to commute often between both countries.
PRE-TRIP Preparation: GETTING THE ELUSIVE Double-decker TICKETS
The time it took for me to secure bus tickets for this trip was longer than the journey itself.
Promptly at 8am last Thursday, I sat in front of my laptop in the promise of completing the buy of motorcoach tickets for the trip early on and to carry on with my solar day.
But that turned out to be wishful thinking. I spent the adjacent hours in virtual waiting rooms ready by the ii motorcoach companies operating the land VTL service - Causeway Link and Transtar Travel.
It was a cycle of getting by the virtual waiting rooms, clicking on the bus schedule choice and getting to the payment page, before a glitch would foreclose me from completing the transaction.
I was not alone in facing this. Many other commuters faced glitches and long waiting times before completing their purchases.
Fortunately by around 3pm, a colleague managed to snag a couple of return tickets under my proper noun, and I heaved a sigh of relief.
8.30AM: DELAYED DEPARTURE
The journeying on Monday morning got off to a rather slow start after I was told at the bus registration counter that my divergence time would exist delayed.
I was scheduled to exit at 9.30am for Singapore from the Larkin Sentral bus last. However, I was told by a staff member of Transtar that the bus would leave at around 12.10pm instead because of "an effect at the Causeway".
The staff member was apologetic and claimed that Transtar had contacted all passengers a twenty-four hour period before to inform them of the delay. Still, I did not get any notification.
Together with 11 other passengers, I had to sit at the boarding area for more than two hours before we were finally asked to board at effectually 12pm.
The await was not platonic and I felt that it could accept been avoided.
1 of the other passengers, Mr Khor Swee Kok, told me that Transtar should have informed passengers of the delay much earlier.
"They simply told me 5 minutes ago," said Mr Khor.
"What tin can I do? I'll just sit and expect I guess. I was hoping to settle down in Singapore before noon," he added.
1PM: CLEARED CAUSEWAY CHECKS PROMPTLY
After the initial delay, it was fortunate that clearing immigration and customs at both sides of the Causeway was a cakewalk.
There were barely any queues at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (Malaysia immigration) or at Woodlands Checkpoint (Singapore).
Officials were also at paw to guide travellers on where to get and what to do.
It certainly helped that I had all my documents in manus - passport, autobus tickets, arrival carte, pre-difference swab test outcome and vaccination certification.
I was able to produce these easily when requested without rummaging through my bags or files.
Afterward the Causeway, I headed to Woodlands Temporary Bus Interchange for a COVID-nineteen Fine art examination.
This on-arrival requirement was imposed by the Singapore government in view of recent reports of the spread of the potentially more contagious Omicron variant.
Travellers were required to administer their own ART tests, closely monitored by officials.
Nosotros then had to look around 15 minutes before the test results were released via SMS.
Fellow traveller Mr Jolex Yong, a Malaysian who works equally an engineer in Singapore, told me that the land VTL was overall a skillful choice. He added that this is something he will consider in the time to come when he wants to return home to Johor Bahru to run across his married woman and babe son.
"I think I volition utilize (the state VTL) again, why non? The price is ok and it is quick likewise," said Mr Yong.
"Information technology is a scrap troublesome to hop upwards and down the buses to clear immigration, but it is okay," he added.
2PM: Made Information technology HOME. WHAT'Due south THE COST BREAKDOWN?
Excluding the delay at the get-go of the journey, the whole trip took me around two hours.
This was alright considering commuters were prepared to spend iii to four hours braving traffic congestion at the Causeway pre-pandemic.
Non only was the journey elapsing tolerable, the costs too were acceptable to me.
For a 1 way trip from Johor Bahru to Singapore, I paid RM120 (S$38.seventy) for my pre-departure Fine art swab test at a private clinic, S$xv for my ART examination on arrival at Woodlands and Due south$half dozen.63 for a i-style charabanc ticket.
This totalled to around Due south$60 (RM185), a reasonable sum because other options such as the air VTL, where air ticket prices alone would typically cost more.
All in all, the land VTL is a realistic option for workers who commute betwixt Singapore and Malaysia. Information technology exempts travellers from quarantine while keeping costs reasonably low.
All the same, in that location is scope for improvement, specially in terms of the bus services.
In particular, when the volume of travellers grows, information technology becomes pivotal that these omnibus companies are able to atomic number 26 out issues relating to buying tickets and communication with customers on possible delays.
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