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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Majority Citaro,minority of Euro V Batch 3 A22 & Euro VI A22…Prepare to see dent body on those A22 just like the Scanias
Someone told me that SBST will be using majority of SG Citaros and minority Batch 3 Euro V A22 for 160/170.
Heard they are using Citaros for Service 170. MAN A22 E5 & E6 for Service 160. Some Scania K230UBS might be mix on 170, likely the remaining E4 KUBS although if this does happen, its most likely E5 KUBS
Actually, I have a feeling the LTA may take this opportunity to consolidate (replace) all three Singapore public bus services that goes to Johor Bahru, namely 170, 160 and 950, into one dedicated public bus service, that only runs from Kranji MRT station in Singapore to Larkin Sentral bus terminal in Johor Bahru.
The LTA may even categorise this dedicated public bus service as an express bus service (since technically, it does run express along the causeway and between the JB custom and Larkin Sentral bus terminal).
The gradual resumption of the Singapore public bus service into Johor Bahru really provides the opportunity to consolidate resources and improve the profitability of the Singapore public bus service that runs into Johor Bahru.
gd idea though but i hope LTA can still keep bus 160 to loop at woodlands ctr road coz based on my observation, in morning peak, many people travel from jurong town hall rd/bukit batok rd to woodlands rd
I mean, 170, 160 and 950 (if got demand) continue their route in Singapore. While the connection to Johor Bahru, all replaced with that one new bus service.
Actually makes more economic sense this way.
Why should Singapore public money be used to subsidize a bus service that connects to Malaysia? We should categorise that cross border bus service as an express bus service, so that we can charge higher fares for the cross border bus service.
Secondly, if the cross border bus service is separated from the rest of the Singapore public bus network, and runs as an independent bus route between Kranji MRT station (we can set up a small bus terminal or bus park at Kranji MRT station area for the bus drivers of this bus service to rest) and Larkin Sentral bus terminal, it will be easier to manage the Singapore public bus resources.
Thirdly, this dedicated bus service can have the same capacity as the RTS Link (in terms of number of passengers per hour), and help to gauge the expected ridership when the RTS Link opens in 2026.
Considering nowadays Singaporeans nolonger go to Johor Bahru in large numbers already, because we have realised that Singapore has whatever that Johor Bahru has (which is essentially just shopping centre), it may be possible to lower the capacity of the Singapore public bus service that connects to Johor Bahru.
The actual ridership on the Singapore public bus service that connects to Johor Bahru may even be lower than the reduced capacity on that bus service.
In conclusion, I am in favour of a consolidation of the Singapore public bus resources. 170, 160 and 950 should permanently become local bus routes, while the Singapore public bus connection to Johor Bahru all takeover by an independent bus service that only runs between Kranji MRT station in Singapore and Larkin Sentral bus terminal in Malaysia.
RTS Link train – 601 passengers maximum capacity
Citaro bus – 90 passengers maximum capacity
RTS Link, two ways = 6 mins (travelling) + 2 mins (waiting at station) + 6 mins (travelling) + 2 mins (waiting at station) = 16 mins for a train to complete one round (two ways).
RTS Link, projected frequency during peak hour = 3.6 minutes.
Using manual visualization and calculation on paper,
One hour (60 mins) can run maximum 3 trains.
[60 – 16 – 3.6 – 16 – 3.6 – 16 – 3.6 = 1.2]
Therefore, maximum capacity of the RTS per direction = 3 Ă— 601 = 1,803 passengers
1,803 passengers = 20.033 buses (5 s.f.)
This means to say, this bus service has to run at 3 mins frequency during peak hour.
Therefore, the number of buses required to provide the RTS Link peak hour capacity per direction = 21 buses.
3 minutes interval, is equivalent to feeder bus frequency (eg. 241).
21 buses, is equivalent to the number of buses on bus service 159.
Above all, having one dedicated public bus service to connect Kranji MRT station with Larkin bus terminal would make it easier to manage resources, and prevent the cross border connection from affecting the public bus service in other parts of Singapore.
Lastly, I would like to share that the current 170 going from Kranji MRT station to Larkin bus terminal and back to Kranji MRT station takes around 78 minutes (not inclusive of resting at Larkin bus terminal), whereas the current 160 going from Kranji MRT to JB custom and loop one round and return to Kranji MRT station takes around 72 minutes.
Going to Larkin bus terminal instead of looping around JB custom would only incur additional 6 minutes travel time only, and somemore going to Larkin bus terminal would allow commuters to transfer to a long-distance bus in Malaysia.
Furthermore, nobody really takes the bus to loop around JB custom when they can walk. I think having the consolidated bus service connect to Larkin bus terminal would be more practical.
Really hope that they can consolidate all the public bus services that connect to Johor Bahru into one dedicated bus service. This total reopening of the Malaysia-Singapore land border really provides the golden opportunity to consolidate the multiple cross border public bus services into one, whi h would allow for better management of the Singapore public bus resources.
Okay la. I know I have written a lot. I shall stop here.
Actually it’s five. You counted the oscillations, when actually you should be counting the number of single-direction trips.
Anyway, if 3 RTS Link trains need 21 buses to make up the capacity, 5 RTS Link trains would need 35 buses to make up the capacity.
Which would make it comparable to the major trunk bus services in Singapore, such as SBST 27 (35 buses) and SMRT 972 (35 buses).
You must know that our cross border service is too winding serving many areas in SG before proceeding to JB..They might as well take CW & SJE for faster journey.
Actually what LTA can do is deploy all the sg plate citaro on 160 170 950. Den use the storage buses to replace the sg plate buses used from other services. For 950 also can deploy the current citaro used for 110 n redeploy them on 950. Den use man a22 euro 6 for service 110. And i hope AC7 can be given to SMRT to operate as service 951.
AC7 should be 867 run by Tower Transit