Causeway Link VTL Bus Singapore to Malaysia Pre-Departure Antigen Test (ART/RTK) At Raffles Hospital Travel Testing Centre (TTC)
Causeway Link VTL Bus passengers can enjoy a discounted COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Test (ART/RTK) for S$24 at Raffles Hospital Travel Testing Centre (TTC) for Causeway Link VTL Bus departures from Singapore. Causeway Link (Handal Indah) has partnered Raffles Medical Group to support the Singapore-Malaysia Vaccinated Travel Lane (Land) [VTL (Land)] with this discounted COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Test (ART/RTK) in Singapore for VTL passengers going to Johor Bahru, Malaysia with the Causeway Link VTL Bus.
Bugis MRT Station Exit B
Bugis MRT Station is served by the East-West Line (EWL) and Downtown Line (DTL). Raffles Hospital can easily accessed from Bugis MRT Station Exit B.
Raffles Hospital
The walk from Bugis MRT Station Exit B to Raffles Hospital is not sheltered. Remember to bring along an umbrella if you are visiting during rain.
Raffles Hospital Travel Testing Centre (TTC) Entrance
Take the sheltered path under Raffles Hospital along Victoria Street where there is a big sign ahead saying Travel Testing Centre.
Upon entering, there will be a staff asking for your purpose of visit, and to check-in with SafeEntry.
As with the many VTLs happening, it’s not unusual for people to give wrong information nowadays.
Malaysia requires a professionally administered antigen rapid test (ART) or RT-PCR test 2 days before departure for land travel. This is clearly stated on MySafeTravel.
Transtar Travel VTL Bus requires a professionally administered antigen rapid test (ART) or RT-PCR test 48 hours before departure for land travel, which is less than 2 days before departure. Thankfully, Causeway Link VTL Bus acknowledges the official information given by Malaysia on MySafeTravel to accept a pre-departure test within 2 days before departure for Malaysia as stated on their website.
However, the Raffles Hospital staff on Level 1 and the Raffles Health website says that tests will be done within 24 hours of your departure time and at least 2 hours before boarding time. She then advised me to come back 24 hours before my departure time.
Nevertheless, after I showed the staff my MySafeTravel registration that I could take the test within 2 days before departure (in fact I was well under 48 hours to prevent these kinds of timing issues, but oh well), she said I could proceed up, but disclaimed any responsibility should I get rejected for boarding in 2 days time.
Raffles Hospital Travel Testing Centre (TTC)
The escalator just beside the entrance leads directly up to the Raffles Hospital Travel Testing Centre (TTC). Here, another staff asked to see my Causeway Link VTL Bus, and accepted my entry within 2 days before departure with no issues.
I filled up the HealthHub form (the usual one when visiting a clinic) before I was ushered on to the queue.
COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Rapid Test (ART) Registration
There was no one in the queue for an Antigen Rapid Test (ART), and I was waved to a registration counter almost immediately.
The registration counter will need:
- Hardcopy printout of Causeway Link VTL Bus ticket from Singapore to Malaysia
- Passport
Do note the operating hours of the Raffles Hospital Travel Testing Centre (TTC) which is 8am to 8pm. The last appointment is at 7.30pm.
This worryingly differs from Raffles Medical’s official website which states the operating hours as 9am to 9pm.
COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Rapid Test (ART) Payment
Once registration is done, I proceeded to the payment counter. The discounted Causeway Link VTL Bus COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Test (ART/RTK) costs S$24 at Raffles Hospital Travel Testing Centre (TTC). I made my payment with a credit card.
This again differs from Raffles Health’s website which allows you to pre-book this discounted Causeway Link VTL Bus COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Test (ART/RTK) at S$25 instead. The pre-booked voucher will not grant you an express queue, neither was there a need for one at the time of my visit.
I see no reason to pre-book the discounted Causeway Link VTL Bus COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Test (ART/RTK) which is advertised on the Causeway Link VTL Bus Bus Order Summary.
COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Rapid Test (ART)
After making payment, proceed on to a swabbing cubicle which will be pointed out to you by a staff.
The test took around a minute, including the time to verify my details once again.
Wait for COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Rapid Test (ART) Results
If you do not need a hardcopy of the test results (ie. you print your test certificate at home from your email yourself), you may leave immediately after the test.
If you need a hardcopy of the test results (ie. Raffles Hospital prints your test certificate for you), wait at the waiting area just outside the exit of the swabbing cubicles, and pick up your test result print-out from the payment counter.
Do note that you must present a hardcopy of the test results to Causeway Link at Queen Street Bus Terminal and Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar.
Results
My negative results came in 15 minutes after the swab was done. I headed to the payment counter upon receiving this email, but the certificate was not ready yet.
The usual COVID-19 Test Result Notice (ART) from the Ministry of Health (MOH) came in by SMS.
Do not use this COVID-19 Test Result Notice (ART) from MOH as your departure test certificate. You need a proper HealthCert. MOH has also added this text in so that everyone can see that this COVID-19 Test Result Notice (ART) is not equivalent to a HealthCert for overseas travel and may not be accepted by other countries.
A couple of minutes later, I received another email that my COVID-19 Test Result is ready. The .json format, known as HealthCert, is a tamper-proof and verifiable digital version of your Test Result created by the Singapore Government.
Here’s my negative COVID-19 Test Result, good to go for Malaysia.
I then proceeded back to the payment counter to pick up my hardcopy of the test results.
Onwards to Queen Street Bus Terminal
If you are immediately catching the Causeway Link VTL Bus after this COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Test at Raffles Hospital, Queen Street Bus Terminal is less than 5 minutes away by foot. However, due to the construction of the North-South Corridor (NSC), the most direct route to the junction of Victoria Street and Ophir Road is blocked off.
You should backtrack here and take the temporary walkway around the construction hoardings to the junction of Victoria Street and Ophir Road. Thereafter, cross the road and walk towards Queen Street where Queen Street Bus Terminal will be in sight.
💥💥💥
But alas, this VTL trip was not meant to be. Like in many advisories, a negative COVID-19 test does not rule out COVID-19 for the future.
I self-tested positive 1 day after my COVID-19 Pre-Departure Antigen Test at Raffles Hospital, and 1 day before I was supposed to depart for Malaysia. Maybe the Level 1 staff telling me to come back the next day was a sign indeed, so that I do my test 24 hours before departure, and so that I could get my positive test recorded there and then at Raffles Hospital, instead of having to book a Community ART Testing (CAT) appointment for another test.
Unfortunately, I could not cancel my Singapore to JB Causeway Link VTL Bus ticket as it is 2 days before departure. However, I have cancelled my JB to Singapore Causeway Link VTL Bus ticket back. Hopefully, the person who takes over it will get to enjoy VTL travel and make it to Singapore.
Any word on when the VTL Land quota is going to be increased ?
Your last minute Positive result has made me curious.
Is reporting self test results up to the individual ?
In other words if you choose NOT to report how would anyone know ?
If I didn’t test myself before departure, I’ll end up paying the foreigner price of quarantine and recovery when I end up at Larkin when I do the on-arrival test.
Still curious though. How would you provide proof of a self test result if your self test was negative ?
It’s not a requirement to do it, I was just testing myself as an added precaution for myself.
Fair enough.
I was always curious when the requirement for tourists was that they self test ( not supervised self test ) on days 2 to 7 after arrival. I know this requirement has been scrapped but I was always curious as to how tourists could be trusted to advise positive results.
You were required to do the Days 3 and 7 tests physically, supervised at a QTC or CTC. https://railtravelstation.com/tag/quick-test-centre-qtc/
As an intending tourist in Australia I have been watching more intently than most.
It ‘was’ days 3 and 7 supervised but then went to self ( unsupervised ) testing on days 2 to 7.
Now it’s supervised testing within 24 hours of arrival and pre-departure within 48 hours of leaving Singapore.
It appears that no one actually knows ( and I have asked at many forums ) how the honest reporting of unsupervised ART self testing results was ever confirmed. Perhaps this difficulty in verification is why unsupervised self testing was dropped as a requirement.
For the last period of days 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 fully-unsupervised tests before finally abolishing it, you were not required to report unsupervised test results.
That explains it then. Relying on peoples’ honesty would have been a waste of tests.
Thank you for pointing out that results didn’t have to be reported.
With any luck then won’t be a mountain of paperwork required when we land in early June.
Looks like it will be Singapore only but slight hope for Malaysia’s FOMO.