Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

It is still all about timing, both bikes and cars. Even early Monday (4.50 in the morning last Monday) cars is very busy and bikes are still very quiet (5.15 bikes busy as well).

All the more reason to buy a Singapore plated motorbike and start early and go home early (like I do, despite complaints from my boss).

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

I have a S'pore plate bike.... I start late (leave home 0900 ish) and leave before 1600 (when I go in... working a lot more from home now!). I've noticed that even at these times the queues are building... lots of people with the same idea?

One Immigration Officer did tell me that the procedure at Woodlands has changed since the "incursions". It now takes longer and so more people are using Tuas.... that may be true.....

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Ah, that makes sense because Tuas seems more busy. I still leave just after 5 on the bike (say 5.10 to 5.15) and then the border is OK. After that it is getting very busy at the Singapore side.

Afternoon around 16.30 when I normally arrive at the border it is still OK but gets very busy after that till late at night (the B-King even starts overheating so I turn the engine off, and that is not fun pushing it up the hill).

Cars starts getting busier later, maybe 15 to 30 mins at the most.

I still have a Singapore car but that won't be for much longer, so I will increase my dayrate to compensate for the cost when I start driving my Malaysian car across.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Geedee has got his head screwed on. Leave home late, leave work early. Way to go :thumbup:

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

I agree, I have resigned from my staff job and will be contracting/consulting :)

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

:lol:

Not really.... I leave the office early, but that's not the end of work!

Having said that I missed my deadline today, unavoidable, so am stuck in town until the jam dies down!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Still at work, meetings till midnight today and tomorrow, then back to "normalish"

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Bet you're tele-conferencing with London... "I say, we're awake and so should you be!" :rofl:

I left the office at 8pm because the queue of bikes looked quite small on the camera.... got home at 10, nearly an hour to get through S'pre border because 4 out of 8 of the auto-booths for bikes were "malfunctioning".

Twats.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

I came back one Sunday and there were so many booths open Singapore side. I queried that with the lady behind the counter and she seemed to be surprised there are peak times when so many are not open. She replied straight away so appeared to be honest in what she was saying (she might be new!). She mentioned there were 3 groups of employees who rotate the shifts so I have come to the conclusion that the reason there are less on the booth during the peak times is because half of the group have to go outside to sort out traffic.

So if everyone queued nicely then I reckon more booths would be open!!

To be honest I am hoping the increase in VEP convince more onto public transport which if they increased the number of buses isn't actually that bad as I've had to jump on one a few times and avoided the jams.

My concern now is that Malaysia will retaliate and increase the impending VEP for Singapore cars coming to Malaysia. At the moment it looks like it will cost me SGD80 a month but now they may increase more.

The idiots who jumped the barrier have definitely made things more difficult for everyone as that is the reason for the massive increase in cars at Tuas.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

You are psychic ;)

You guys won't want to hear this. In today's papers, states that the Malaysian government is mulling over a Johor proposal to impose a charge on foreign vehicles coming into Malaysia. Oh dear. You can read more here:
http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asi...es-entering-bo

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

It was in the news 2 months ago then went quiet.

Amount is 7RM a day I think hence I calculated $80 a month.

The Singapore increase will naturally see this issue raised again. I don't mind paying $80 and to be fair I don't blame the Malaysian government. Its easy money as everyone will pay it and why should one side charge and not the other. Just a shame its the consumers who lose out.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

just seen that the figure 50RM per day is being discussed. Thats $400-600 a month depending on whether weekends are included.

That is the kind of figure that should see a lot of people relocating back to Singapore....

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

That 7RM a day is at the road toll, isn't it? That's for all cars, including Malay. I think there'll be an extra on top, like the VEP.

.... or sell the S'pore car and buy a Malaysian plate. At the moment it's the traffic jams making people go back to S'pore, I believe.

BB, good article, liked the comments!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

The 7RM was additional like VEP...

Unfortunately as an SPR I can't drive my Malaysia car into Singapore. I have no choice but to pay up whatever they set it to....

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

That means you are paying the normal Singapore vehicle toll fees and not the VEP for foreign vehicles. However you also pay the COE etc. and that is no fun.

I was looking at a cheap car to go in and out of Singapore and looked at both sides of the border, similar cars and even with the VEP at 35 SGD per day, it is still cheaper than a Singapore car !!! Ridiculous.

Only problem for Singapore is they are damaging their economy in the long run but they are just so hell bent on not wanting their PRs and Citizens living cheaper and putting less pressure on their own housing market.

It just doesn't make sense but hey, maybe on day they will wake up, probably after Medini and the likes are really starting to hurt Singapore business, i.e. when it is too late !!!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

The charges being introduced by Malaysia are to bring Woodlands in line with Tuas, it seems (not really sure as reliable info a bit hard to find!). If that's the case I can only see Tuas getting even worse!!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Looks like the extra traffic's started already. I can't believe it.... twenty past eight on a Tuesday evening. In....cred....ible!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

In the spirit of fair and balanced reporting, and after blaming S'pore 100% for the jams, I am saddened to say today was the biggest mash-up I've ever witnessed at the Malaysia end!

Left home in a taxi at 0700....and hit a mega-jam about 500 metres before the TOLL GATE exiting Johor. I thought at first the tolls had broken, but no, it was a queue all the way to the Malaysian Immigration Checkpoint.

It took forever to get through.

I was dreading the S'pore end (it's usually always worse) but to my complete and utter surprise, we joined as the second car in the queue for our booth!

No idea what happened at Malaysia's end this morning, but it certainly took the heat off the S'poreans! ;)

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

There were 2 reasons for the mess yesterday.

Firstly there were loads more cars than usual (no idea why!) at both 2nd link and the causeway. It took me 2 hours over 2nd link when it is usually 45 mins and my colleague arrived over an hour late as well.

Secondly, and this was infuriating, Malaysia have decided since last week to give 2 of the 4 lanes it usually gives to cars to motobikes which I just don't understand. There were so many booths empty whilst the cars only have 2 lanes (and 6 booths!).

Setting off in 15 minutes, I sincerely hope yesterday was a one off!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Hi B27, thanks for those observations which make a lot of sense.
About the lanes given to bikes... as a "biker" I do have some insight into this! However, I don't think I should post it on a public forum!
I think you may have had a bad journey today too... my wife's facebook contacts posted pictures and it looked as bad as yesterday.
There's a combination of S'pore wanting to make it hard and Malaysia wanting tit-for tat going on and it makes the commute an absolute nightmare now.
I'm a little concerned that this whole "Nusajaya" plan is going to fall flat on its face!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

It wasn't as bad as Monday but still a bit of queuing. Took me an hour to reach work instead of 45 mins which actually isn't that bad. Tuesdays and Thursdays I need to be in work by 6:30am at the moment so I suspect its getting worse after I have cleared...

Only a week and a half before school christmas holidays so I'll have 3 weeks of not having to go across. Think January could be interesting....

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

An hour's not bad.... what's happening in January?? :(

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

It was exactly at this time last year that it all went crazy. Everyone thought it was due to school holidays (local schools) and the increased volume of traffic for Christmas shopping - but sadly it didn't really improve much after that. I'll never understand why the two sides have to make it so blooming difficult for everyone!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Totally agree.

I suggested to the missus that we take a drive over the Causeway to Desaru next week and get some seafood and maybe stay the night. She nearly fell off her chair and scotched the idea at least until January.
The infrastructure is there on both sides, all it needs is an extra 2 maybe 3 officers at the most to sit in existing empty booths and do the needful.

It's bizarre that both Govs allow this to happen when the solution is so obvious and easy.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

I was going to start another thread, but it will fit in here.

We went in to S'pore last Saturday... slow, but not horrific.

Left S'pore at 1430 to come home. Got home (distance about 39Km) at 1930.

5 freaking hours to travel 39 freaking kilometres!

We cleared S'pore at about 1555 and hit the mother of all jams going into Johor at 1600. We barely moved for 3 hours.

Seriously, this Iskandar / S'pore tie up is dead. It isn't going to work while 50% of booths are closed at peak periods. They're either brain dead or doing it intentionally, but Joe Public will not put up with it much longer.

It beggars belief how they can be so dumb. Asia the new world power? I doubt it.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Mine is not a recent story, but I share the frustrations. A few months ago I left Johor on a Friday night to meet an old friend and spend a weekend in Singapore. It took me 4 and a half hours to go from Johor to central Singapore. Seriously, I can travel to KL in that time. I have not been back to Singapore since, it just is not worth the effort.

Scratcher

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

What a nightmare Geedee! 3.5 hours was my record for the Singapore/Malaysia trip. It's soul destroying sitting in that queue and once you're in it - you can't escape!

Why are you still up?!

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Hi Scratcher. We're feeling the same way. We thought hiring a car would be great for weekend journeys into S'pore for a change, but that nightmare has really put us off. I haven't found traffic cams for the Malaysia side of the crossing yet.... that would help!

No.... the "U-Turn" is right at the checkpoint so if you've endured it that long you might as well wait the extra 30 minutes!

What was I still doing up???:blink: I don't think I was up late... have you adjusted your BE time in the settings? (nor me, the posts are all still Canada time here!

How are you settling in???

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Facebook comments indicate new "system in S'pore" with a barrier. Took a friend 4 hours to cross during the week... at lunch time. I will investigate and report :-)

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

As in..... Good system OR Bad system ?

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

So here's what they've dreamed up now:

Left home yesterday at a time that normally guarantees I'm in the office within the hour. It took two....:blink:

Sailed through Malaysia Immigration, not much traffic - hit the jam at Singapore on the downslope of the bridge. Crawled to the immigration booth, passport checked, barrier up.... couldn't move because of the next jam to customs.

Crawled to customs, had the car checked, barrier up... couldn't move because... wait for it.... they've installed traffic lights before you get onto the road.

Normally the cars filter from the two customs points in an orderly fashion; yesterday it was like being in a scrum. Nobody letting anyone in when the light eventually turned green. It was absolute bedlam.

I cannot think of any good reason for putting in this new bottleneck, but it's just doubled the crossing time.

Thank you Singapore.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

In the spirit of fair and balanced reporting.....

Getting out of S'pore today... meganightmare! The Q to the Malaysian border stretched all the way back to.... the Singapore immigration counters :(

The buzz was that it was taking 6 to 8 hours to get across. :eek:

The word here is that it's tit-for-tat. S'pore making life hard most days, Malaysia making life really, really hard on the 50th anniversary.

Iskandar needs S'pore, S'pore needs Iskandar. Why can't they just work it out... this my pecker is bigger than yours just screws the whole place up. And this is why Asia will NEVER be the next super power.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

You're upset, aren't you :sneaky:

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

:rofl:

I would have been if I'd needed to cross that day!

I do despair at the attitude to these land crossings... they could be so much smoother, with only a little outlay. We pay so much money to cross, and there's zero service, as though car drivers are second class citizens (bikers are 3rd!!).

It all started to get worse when the price of S'pore real estate started falling. The good thing is that's had a knock on effect over here, and I'm now saving a lot on rent. :thumbsup:

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Oh no.... seems to be true.... there's a rumour that next year (less than a month away!) they are going to ban heavy goods vehicles on the Woodlands crossing - they will have to use 2nd Link Tuas.
That is going to be an absolute nightmare.....:banghead:

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

So...what is the point of that then? Are they trying to free up traffic at Woodlands? How strange.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

They want to reduce congestion in the area to concentrate on building the Johor / S'pore MRT.....

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Gotcha. So some Pain before you Gain.

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

What is commute like now we are in Feb?

Is the am singapore too malaysia better than am malaysia to Singapore with same for pm?

Guess perk for some is to work in malaysia rather than commute?

Re: Something wrong at the Singapore border?
 

Most of the time the jam is caused by JB custom. There are many counters, however they only utilized 50% of it. If all counters are open, I'm very sure it can improve the traffic flow.