THE opening of the Johor Bahru–Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link has been pushed back to February, moving past its original target to allow more time for system testing, third-party safety certification, and regulatory approvals.
Singapore Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow noted the goal is now to commence cross-border passenger services before Hari Raya Puasa.
While transport experts view the brief setback as understandable given the complexity of cross-border rail projects and past pandemic-related adjustments, they cautioned that launching near major holiday travel periods presents immediate operational hurdles.
Experts warned that an opening close to peak festive travel could put station infrastructure to an early test.
“If it opens immediately before the holiday, I would want to see the whole passenger journey tested under peak-demand conditions, not just the trains,” Channel News Asia (CNA) quoted Prof Lee Der-Horng, a fellow of Singapore’s Academy of Engineering, as saying.
“Trains could have available capacity while queues are building up elsewhere in the station.”
Because passengers clear both Singapore and Malaysia immigration at their departure point, bottlenecks are far more likely to occur inside stations – at ticketing, immigration clearance, and boarding areas – than on the trains themselves.
Transport analysts emphasised that while train frequency can manage transit capacity, station managers will bear the primary responsibility for handling intense holiday crowds, urging operators to conduct thorough, realistic crowd-management rehearsals prior to launch.
Lee said he would treat February as a “conditional target” rather than a confirmed opening date.
“The important question is whether the remaining work is now sufficiently well understood and whether the revised programme allows for any necessary corrective work and retesting,” he added.
If those steps take longer than expected, further delays could still occur.
“I would look for progress against those milestones before expressing greater confidence in the opening date,” he told CNA. — Oct 3, 2026
Main photo credit:The Star
