Frustrated with Causeway jam, some travellers walk to Singapore instead

Throngs of travellers opted to walk across the Causeway from Johor Bahru after they faced snaking queues for buses and heavy traffic towards Singapore.

From 12pm on Monday (June 17), the Causeway saw uptick in traffic towards Singapore, according to data from Checkpoint.sg.

The heavy traffic was expected at the tail end of the Hari Raya Haji long weekend, with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) advising the public last to factor more time for immigration clearance after more than 510,000 travellers cleared Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints on June 13.

Some social media posts from Monday evening showed long queues at Johor Bahru Checkpoint's departure hall.

Pictures and videos posted to a Telegram channel JB/SG Custom Human Traffic also showed long queues at the bus bay of Johor Bahru checkpoint as well as many travellers crossing the Causeway on foot.

Lin Dejie, 52, told Shin Min Daily News that he took 25 minutes to walk across the Causeway.

Had he waited for a bus, Lin would have taken more than an hour to get to Woodlands Checkpoint.

He said that he exited the Johor Bahru checkpoint at around 3.45pm and found the departure hall packed.

"The queue for the bus to cross the Causeway had stretched to the door of the departure hall. I felt something was wrong, so I decided to walk," he told Shin Min

After arriving at Woodlands Checkpoint, it only took Lin 10 minutes to clear customs.

Queues for the buses, however, were also long there.

"I waited for 20 minutes before I got on a bus," he said.

Record set once more

More than 2.4 million people cleared the Woodlands and Tuas checkpoints during the recent Hari Raya Haji long weekend, according to ICA.

Over 530,000 travellers crossed the Causeway on June 14 alone, breaking the record set the day before, said the ICA in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

ICA said that traffic will remain "very heavy" at both land checkpoints throughout the June school holidays which will end on June 23.

According to the One Motoring website, traffic along the Causeway towards Woodlands has eased as of Tuesday while that at the Second Link towards Tuas remains heavy.

Traffic along the Causeway towards Johor appears to be heavy as well.

Members of the Telegram channel said on Tuesday evening that while there are no queues at customs, bus queues are still winding at both Johor and Singapore checkpoints.

ALSO READ: 'Haven't even smelled JB customs after 2 hours': Travellers stuck in up to 3-hour queues at checkpoint after enhanced security

bhavya.rawat@asiaone.com