JB-Singapore RTS Link to start with 25-minute station clearance target
Malaysia’s Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRT Corp) aims to clear passengers through Bukit Chagar station in Johor Bahru within 25 minutes of entry, project director Zulkifli Mohamed told Channel NewsAsia on Monday.
Source: Channel NewsAsia · August 17, 2026 at 6:31 PM · AI-assisted report
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KUALA LUMPUR, 18 AUGUST 2026 —
Malaysia’s Mass Rapid Transit Corporation (MRT Corp) aims to clear passengers through Bukit Chagar station in Johor Bahru within 25 minutes of entry, project director Zulkifli Mohamed told Channel NewsAsia on Monday.
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The 4km cross-border link to Singapore’s Woodlands North station is scheduled to begin service in January 2027, cutting the five-minute train ride into a seamless transit experience that officials hope will draw up to 10,000 passengers an hour each way off the Causeway.
The station will run three levels of checks: ground-floor ticketing, first-floor security, and second-floor immigration for both countries before boarding on the third level. Zulkifli said five minutes has been budgeted for each checkpoint sequence, including the escalator ride to platform level. “We are trying hard to improve it,” he said. “If everything is streamlined, perhaps they can clear in 20 minutes.”
Security screening will rely on 18 luggage scanners and nine AI-enhanced body scanners supplied by Germany’s Rohde & Schwarz. The millimetre-wave units flag concealed objects within seconds and mark their location on a screen for officers. Malaysian immigration will offer about two dozen electronic gates plus manual counters; passengers using the MyNIISe app can clear in as little as seven seconds.
A joint monitoring room, staffed by Malaysian and Singaporean officers, will sit alongside a dual-country operations control centre that will oversee train movements and disruptions. RTS Operations chief executive Ahmad Marzuki Ariffin said such arrangements are rare. “This is one of the few projects with two operations control centres to resolve issues quickly,” he said.
Commuters exiting Bukit Chagar will enter a 409m pedestrian linkway leading to malls including KOMTAR JBCC and Johor Bahru City Square, plus JB Sentral where they can connect to Malaysia’s Electric Train Service for destinations such as Kuala Lumpur and Penang. MRT Corp said the linkway is designed to disperse 10,000 passengers at any one time and parts will open before the RTS Link starts in January 2027.
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