Getting to Johor Bahru from Singapore by Bus

If you’re fed up with the frustrating traffic jams when driving up to Johor Bahru, here’s another alternative- why not take the bus to JB?

We head up to JB a few times a year simply because we find that it’s a more economical “staycation”. With our favourable exchange rate, about S$1 to Rm$3, a family can certainly enjoy a fair bit of savings for entertainment and dining. 

READ ALSOAustin Heights Water and Adventure Park in JB 

On our recent visit to JB, we decided to take the public bus. I had my reservations initially and stared hard at hubby when he suggested that. 

Can we manage with our luggage? 

Are the buses clean?

Will it be very crowded and will we be stuck in a jam with the rest of the cars? 

But surprise, surprise, it was not too shabby a ride.

Taking the bus to JB from Singapore

There are two route you can use to take the bus to JB either from Singapore Woodlands Checkpoint or Tuas Checkpoint. 

We went with Woodlands since we were staying at Doubletree by Hilton, which is close to JB Sentral. 

READ ALSO: Where to stay in JB

At Singapore Woodlands Checkpoint

We took an Uber to Woodlands Checkpoint from our home. Upon arrival, we proceed to the Checkpoint building. We tried our luck to purchase last minute train tickets but the next available ride was half a day later at 4pm.

We made our way up the lift with our luggage which we kept to a minimum since we were only going for 3days. It took us 20 minutes to clear Singapore immigration and this was considered fast since it was still the second Hari Raya weekend.

After that was done, we took a quick toilet break because you don’t want to turn blue from holding in your pee while you’re in a bus on the causeway.

Here you want to make sure you queue for the right bus. There a separate queue for the SBS bus and CW bus.

The CW bus or Causeway Link bus is a cross-border service operated by Malaysian bus operator and it picks up passengers from Kranji MRT Station, Queen Street, Newton Circus and Jurong to get to Woodlands Checkpoint. For more information, you can read about it here.  

If you didn’t take the CW to get to Woodlands Checkpoint, then queue for either Bus No. 160 or 170 as both buses will have to stop at JB Sentral Checkpoint. Bus No. 160 starts from Jurong East Interchange (beside the Jurong East MRT and Bus No. comes from Kranji MRT .

Bus fare: S$1.93 (With EZ-Link card); $2.50 (Cash).

 

Sophie saw the above poster of prohibited items and joking told me, Sorry no ninjas on the bus allowed.

At JB Sentral Checkpoint

When you arrive at JB Sentral Checkpoint, proceed to the immigration counter to get your passport stamped. For Singaporeans, no immigration card is required for entry into Malaysia. Here it took us another 30 minutes to clear the Malaysian immigration.

TIP: We discovered that the queues tend to be shorter at counters 3,4, 7,8, 11,12 as they have 2 counters to serve one queue. 

Travel time from Singapore to JB by bus

So how long did it take us to get from Singapore Woodlands Checkpoint to JB Sentral Checkpoint? A little more than 2 hours. 

And the best part? Buses have their own bus lane so we were zipping by the cars that were stuck in a jam on the causeway. Travel time was minutes and may have been faster if the cars kept the bus lane clear when we were exiting the causeway.

After we exited the immigration, we made sure to get our pre-pad data which allows us to Uber and Grab our way around JB too. We went with DIGI and got 7G of data for 1 week at 20 RM. 

Don’t pull your hair out in frustration the next time you get caught in another insane traffic jam to JB. Try the buses or train and don’t forget to look for Gong Cha at City Square Mall too!

Comparing ticket prices

Here’s a quick price comparison between different modes of transport

Tickets for KTM – S$5  from Singapore to JB and 5RM from JB to Singapore.
Tickets for bus – $2 from Singapore to JB
Hired car – $150 return trip from Singapore to JB

 

Kids tickets still exits in Malaysia! S$17 for a family of 3 on Saturday.

If you’re heading to JB, don’t miss these posts where I share some of my shopping finds and places to go cafe hopping across the causeway as well.

Enjoyed reading this post? Do like my Facebook page to get more family friendly travel updates. You can also follow me on Twitter (@Susankoh) or Instagram (@ajugglingmom) for more travel and parenting posts.
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Comments: 19

  1. […] ALSO READ: Getting to Johor Bahru from Singapore by Bus […]

  2. Y December 19, 2017 at 10:53 am Reply

    Hi you mentioned u took grab directly to woodlands train checkpt but never took e train and instead proceed to clear the customs. Can you do that? I thought u r supposed to take a bus from woodlands int or kranji mrt to the woodlands checkpoint.

    • Susan January 1, 2018 at 11:38 pm Reply

      Hi, I should have been clearer. The immigration is different for train and bus passengers. We tried our luck to buy train tickets on the spot but since there was no available train tickets we took the bus into JB after clearing the customs at Woodlands checkpoint.

  3. Nickolas Aroney January 6, 2018 at 12:22 pm Reply

    Hi Susan.
    Excellent article ( will read others after this ). It ‘seems’ that the only taxi ( or Uber ) drop off is Woodlands Train Checkpoint. I know there are expensive ‘straight through’ taxis but would rather have extra spending money. We will be travelling with luggage but can’t seem to find a taxi to drop us at the normal CIQ.
    Is it easy to cross from the Train Checkpoint side to the normal CIQ ?

    • Susan January 23, 2018 at 9:17 pm Reply

      I do have a contact that can take you from Singapore to JB. He charges $150 for return trip. Let me know if you’re keen to have the contact. Otherwise it’s very easy to cross from the checkpoint to the CIQ.

      • Tang Lai Peng June 16, 2018 at 6:42 pm Reply

        Very informative! Can I hv the contact for the round trip hire car please? Thanks! tr3na@hotmail.com

        • Susan July 6, 2018 at 4:17 pm Reply

          Hi, sorry for the late reply. I’ve emailed you the contact.

          • kendrapuah January 19, 2019 at 9:01 pm

            Hi, can I have the contact too? ken_puah@hotmail.com

          • Susan February 1, 2019 at 2:57 pm

            Hi Ken, sorry for the late reply. I’ve emailed you the JB driver contact.

  4. Talal June 26, 2018 at 6:54 pm Reply

    Hi Susan,

    I read your article about getting to Johor from Singapore and really need your advice\help to choose wisely. We are family of 2 adults and 2 children coming to Singapore for the first time. As I know that getting to Legoland in MY is really frasturating due to the huge traffic. So I was a little confused as I have no idea what is the best way whether using a train or a bus. I need the fastest way possible. I saw that you are recommending the train, but unfortunately, you used a bus this time. So which one do u prefer and faster? hope you can help me to choose wisley especially that I will reside near Orchid Rd.

    Thank you very much.

    Regards,
    Talal

  5. Galford October 8, 2018 at 11:47 am Reply

    Hi, you mentioned that you took 2 hours to get from woodlands checkpoint to central checkpoint. This includes all the immigration checks and everything? Ie when you first reach woodlands to the point where you clear customs in jb sentral?

  6. Seong Chuan Lim March 23, 2019 at 3:28 pm Reply

    If there any good ways to go from sg to jb airport?? And can u suggest the time in between for the trip to jb and the flight?? U can email me in tis email.. sclimdavid123@gmail.com

  7. Denise April 13, 2019 at 1:44 pm Reply

    Can I have contact of jb rount trip driver and do they go to desaru? Tks.

    • Susan May 17, 2019 at 12:57 pm Reply

      I’ve emailed you the contact.

  8. […] Beat the causeway jam – Getting to Johor Bahru from Singapore by Bus […]

  9. Vidhya May 29, 2019 at 9:02 pm Reply

    Hi Susan, Can you send the contact

  10. […] Beat the causeway jam – Getting to Johor Bahru from Singapore by Bus […]

  11. […] Beat the causeway jam – Getting to Johor Bahru from Singapore by Bus […]

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