Media Statement by Johor DAP Policy Director and Senai State Assemblywoman Wong Shu Qi on 22nd September 2015 (Tuesday):
Trips for Tebrau Shuttle should be increased to meet the demands
The rolling out of Tebrau Shuttle is good news for daily commuters between Johor Bahru and Singapore Woodlands. However, there is obviously a short of supply. KTMB should hence increase the trips as soon as possible especially in the morning peak hours.
I have personally visited the ticket counters several times, both at Johor Bahru Sentral and Woodlands. In the view that almost all weekday tickets from JB sentral to Woodlands are sold out few weeks before the actual day, the demand by working Malaysians in Singapore is unsurprisingly high as there are about 200,000 Malaysians commuting daily.
Although we do not clearly know how good or bad the sales of the Woodlands-JB Sentral trip as the figures are not available for return trips, yet, we make a rough estimation from the reply that I received in the last state assembly; that tickets for Woodlands-JB Sentral will be sold out only on Fridays and Saturdays.
| 1/7-4/7 | 5/7-11/7 | 12/7-18/7 | 19/7-25/7 | 26/7-1/8 | 2/8-8/8 | 9/8-15/8 | 16/8-22/8 | 23/8-29/8 | 30/8-31/8 | |
| Sunday | 1948 | 2065 | 2303 | 1883 | 1913 | 2387 | 1950 | 1844 | 2085 | |
| Monday | 1890 | 2099 | 2251 | 2542 | 2015 | 2426 | 1961 | 2027 | 1980 | |
| Tuesday | 1941 | 2050 | 1964 | 1938 | 1936 | 2137 | 1972 | 1976 | ||
| Wednesday | 1410 | 2070 | 2213 | 1915 | 1914 | 2034 | 1878 | 1869 | 1992 | |
| Thursday | 1562 | 2123 | 3058 | 1917 | 2019 | 3129 | 2091 | 2248 | 2126 | |
| Friday | 2382 | 2515 | 3273 | 2478 | 2506 | 3902 | 2380 | 2582 | 2569 | |
| Saturday | 2649 | 3026 | 2771 | 2758 | 2575 | 3128 | 2610 | 2781 | 3205 |
Currently there are only 14 trips in total for inbound and outbound trip. The number of the trips should be increased to meet the high demand of outbound trip especially the peak hours in the morning. The coaches should also be increased so that KTM can take in more passengers in a trip.
On the other hand, I am very glad that our Deputy Minister for Home Affairs, Datuk Nur Jazlan had visited the CIQ immediately after he took office. I hope he now realised the problems faced everyday by more than 200,000 Malaysians; the long queue at CIQ, health hazards caused by traffic congestion, and lower quality of life due to the time wasted in the whole commuting process.
I sincerely hope that the Minister for Home Affairs can quickly upgrade or allocate more budget to maintain all the auto-gates at CIQ. This is to ensure a shorter waiting time and immigration check for Malaysians.
With 200,000 Malaysians commuting daily, we can actually imagine that almost every family in greater Johor Bahru has a friend or a relative who needs to travel to Singapore on a daily basis. By reducing the hours that they had to spend in the Causeway congestion, we are ultimately increasing the time of happiness for all.
To improve the lives of the people in Johor Bahru, we need the political will and immediate actions of the government of the day.
Wong Shu Qi