Rapid Transit System agreement signed by Malaysia and Singapore

Malaysia and Singapore have announced to deliver the 4km Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link between Singapore and Johor Bahru in southern Malaysia.

The RTS Link will have the capacity to carry up to 10,000 passengers per hour per direction (pphpd), equalling 60,000 users crossing the Causeway during peak times. This is much higher than the average 300pphpd that the Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad’s (KTMB) Tebrau Shuttle is currently transporting. Once the RTS Link has been operational for six months, the KTMB Tebrau Shuttle services to Singapore are due to stop.

The Bilateral Agreement includes the technical, safety and security requirements, commercial, financing and regulatory frameworks as well as customs and immigration arrangements. It has been agreed that to facilitate passenger flow the RTS Link will have co-located Custom, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities in both Bukit Chagar and Woodlands North. Passengers travelling will be cleared with both Malaysia and Singapore authorities at the point of departure meaning a second clearance on arrival is not necessary.

The RTS Link is to utilise the same four core technology systems as Singapore’s future Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL). These are trains, signalling system, communications system and Integrated Supervisory Control System. The TEL is expected to open in Singapore in 2019.

Both countries are to appoint an Infrastructure Company (InfraCo) for the funding, building, owning, maintaining and renewing of the civil infrastructure and stations within their territories. Together they will employ an operating company to do the same on the RTS Link’s operating assets.

Scheduled to be completed in 2014 the RTS Link will run for 4km over the Straights of Johor over a bridge that is 25m-high.