Rail system works on Johor Bahru-Singapore RTS Link 50% complete
The RTS Link, which will stretch 4km from Singapore’s Woodlands North station to Johor’s Bukit Chagar station, is expected to start passenger service by the end of 2026.
Track installation at the Bukit Chagar RTS station construction site on Feb 26, 2025. To the right of the station is the under-construction Immigration, Customs and Quarantine (ICQ) facility. (Photo: CNA/Mak Jia Kee)
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JOHOR BAHRU: Rail system works on the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link project is about 50 per cent complete, the transport operator said in an update on Wednesday (Feb 26).
These works include track installation, signalling, and power supply. Track installation, which started in September last year from the Wadi Hana Depot in Johor Bahru, is set to be completed and reach Woodlands North station in July.
The updates were given by RTS Operations (RTSO) project director Zahrin Abdul Gani on Wednesday. RTSO is a joint venture company formed by transport operators Prasarana Malaysia and Singapore's SMRT Corporation.
The RTS Link, which will stretch 4km from Singapore’s Woodlands North station to Johor’s Bukit Chagar station, is expected to begin service by the end of 2026.
It aims to ease traffic congestion on the Causeway – one of the world's busiest border crossings – by ferrying up to 10,000 passengers an hour each way.
Mr Zahrin said that the “system implementation phase” of the project is progressing well.
“In the coming months, our key focus will be on critical systems including trackwork, rolling stock (the trains), traction power and the seamless integration of signalling and control systems,” he added.
Asked by the media about the possible fares, RTSO CEO Dr Ahmad Marzuki Ariffin said that there is “no information to disclose as of yet”, and that fares will be announced closer to the start date.
In January last year, then-prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim marked the completion of a 17.1m-long structure linking the marine viaducts of both countries.
On the Singapore side, work to connect the RTS Link to the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) will begin in 2025, Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA), Malaysia's Mass Rapid Transit Corporation and RTSO said in a joint statement last November.
BUKIT CHAGAR STATION
CNA got a look at how the tracks were installed, with a bird’s-eye view from the RTSO office of the viaduct leading to Bukit Chagar Station.
Workers could be seen installing tracks and other rail systems along the elevated viaduct as vehicular traffic plied the roads below.
Bukit Chagar station was covered with a temporary brown roof and a final canopy will be installed at a later date.
Next to the station, the new Immigration, Customs and Quarantine (ICQ) facility was under construction.
Further up the track, en route to the Wadi Hana depot, was a grey sheltered area where security checks on trains would be carried out after all passengers disembarked.
A FIRST LOOK AT WADI HANA DEPOT
The media also got a first look at the Wadi Hana Depot, which is over 1km north of Bukit Chagar station and the only depot servicing the RTS Link.
Located on a 14-acre plot of land, the depot will have seven parallel tracks to maintain, repair and house trains.
The trains will be provided by Chinese company CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive.
The structure of the depot was already complete, with bare rooms on the first floor that would be used as workshops, among other purposes. Tracks in the depot were 65 per cent completed.
RTSO said that system installation works at the depot, stations, viaducts and tunnels along the RTS Link will proceed in phases from March.
These works include traction power, signalling and communications systems.
When the tracks and systems are installed, system testing will begin in 2026, before the start of passenger service by the end of that year.
