From 1 April 2022, Singapore and Malaysia will open their land borders to fully-vaccinated travellers by all modes of transport. No pre-departure and on-arrival tests will be required for travel between both countries.
Cross-border public bus services will not be in operation initially, such as Bus Services 160, 170 and 950, and Causeway Link’s various CW-prefixed routes. These bus services have suspended their cross-border operations since March 2020, and will be progressively restored at a later date. Local sectors of Service 160 and 170 continue to operate within Singapore. These bus services will resume on 1 May 2022.
A Cross-Border Shuttle Service will operate between Woodlands Checkpoint CIQ and Bangunan Sultan Iskandar CIQ.
Designated Vaccinated Travel Bus Services (VTBS) will operate for now, replacing the Vaccinated Travel Lane Bus Services which have been operating since late-November 2022.
Cross-border public bus services will not be operating initially, including Bus Services 160, 170 and 950. These bus services have suspended their cross-border operations since 18 March 2020, Â and will be progressively restored at a later date. Short-Trip Bus Service 170A will operate between Queen Street and Woodlands Train Checkpoint.
This article will be updated with more information when available.
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I wont be suprised 160 , 170, 170x and even 950 will become full fleet citaro.
The cross border bus services operate by local operators will not be able to open within the next 3 months… Same issues applies to Singapore Johor Express and Access coach services that operates AC7.
170/X,160 may run on electric buses if Malaysia allows it to have eletric buses so that it is easier to travel but they should have enough to go from Singapore to Malaysia.
Mix of Euro V KUB & SG Citaro
not surprised if this is the choice
april 1 is too near. obviously not going to start back at that date. maybe another 2 weeks then resume
Ya just like how 950 used have 2 models when it first started.
Since majority of Spad registered Scania KUB E4 has been retired, what bus model will be the replacements? Tbh MAN A22 E6 would be the best candidate or even the E5 if Malaysia allows. Citaros…arent known to be the most reliable, breaking down so often, air conditioning also almost non existent. And since 160,170,950 is probs going be very packed, the bet the pax wont be able to handle the heat though. I am also curious about the future of 160,170 & 950 since lta plans to only buy electric buses from now on….Hope LTA know what they are doing…
They are probably in the midst of registration right now.
Citaro is a very expensive brand, even if it is reliable (after all it is award winning) I won’t recommend letting our Citaros run into Malaysia.
Probably the budget option, which is the MAN A22.
More importantly, I think we can finally see the lush green buses run into Malaysia.
Really excited to see what kind of bus fleet will run on 170 and 160 when the bus services resume running into Malaysia.
Lush green buses are rejected by Malaysia tho
Why would the lush green buses be rejected by Malaysia?
Cause it’s marked “SG Buses”.
It’s like a foreign bus “invading” into another country.
They are basically lta livery not sbs/smrt livery. Malaysia wants each company to have their own image/livery. Currently only Citaros is avaliable unless MAN A22 E6 gets repainted but doubt that would ever happen. This is basically lta fault, all buses from now on is going to be electric only & lush green. Lta buy all the buses for the operators now on. Its now on Malaysia side if they want to accept lush green buses & electric buses.
For now, maybe mix the Euro V KUB with the Citaros?
in the future, all govt buses will be lush green. malaysia then cant reject?
Every Singapore public bus will eventually have the lush green livery. Also, if the causeway link buses with the bright yellow livery and the Malaysia flag featured on the livery can run in Singapore, I don’t see why the Singapore public bus with the lush green livery and the “SG❤️Bus” featured on the livery cannot run in Malaysia.
I am actually thinking that perhaps deploying a standardised fleet of the MAN A22 (Euro 6) buses on the cross border bus services 170, 160 and 950 will be a good idea.
Other than the economies of scale that can be enjoyed if 170, 160 and 950 all use the same bus model (only need one team of technicians in Johor Bahru to attend to the bus if the bus breaks down in Johor Bahru) (furthermore, the MAN A22 buses are assembled in Johor Bahru, the technical support for MAN A22 buses is readily available in Johor Bahru),
MAN A22 (Euro 6) being a relatively new bus model would mean that the next time the LTA needs to register new buses with the Malaysia authorities again would be around 12 years later. Also, renewing all the buses in one go would really simplify matters.
The improved features of the MAN A22 Euro 6 bus would improve the riding experience on the cross border public bus services, which would be rewarding for the Singaporeans who commute on them to go to Johor Bahru, as well as the Malaysia workers who commute on them to and fro Johor Bahru and Singapore when they go to Singapore to seek employment opportunities.
I’m actually expecting the bus fleet on the cross border bus services 170, 160 and 950 to all standardise to use the MAN A22 Euro 6 buses, since nowadays the public buses are all centrally managed by the LTA, and the LTA is currently in the midst of registering the buses that are replacing the previous cross border buses (the Scania K230UB buses) which have retired.
Furthermore, there’s a lot of MAN A22 Euro 6 buses in storage.
It seems that all the odds are in favour of the cross border bus services using the MAN A22 Euro 6 buses.
Really hope that the Singapore cross border public bus services 170, 160 and 950 can all standardise to use the MAN A22 Euro 6 buses when they resume their connection to Johor Bahru.
Not possible to use the MAN A22 because it would mean another huge round of bus shuffling between depots. UPD currently do not the required amount of A22 to ops 160/170/170x.
In fact, the EURO IV being retired are being replaced with the citaros and the A22 given to UPD are operating on other services.
Since 1 of the merc have been fitted with a 3rd brake light, it is likely to be the citaro instead, although EURO V KUB in the SBS5XXX series might be used also.
I am surprised to see the citaros being used because SBST normally throw their older rolling stock into 160/170 and the newer buses are given priority to local routes.
Agreed, the A22 E6 would be a better choice since they are newer, have a longer lifespan and also much more spacious than the citaro, more standing space as 160/170 etc always full house shuttling between the 2 checkpoints. this should be the main consideration i hope. rather than buses that have capacity limits just because of the brand… lesser pax then?