Konsortium Express & Tours Pte Ltd has closed down.
Konsortium is one of the well-known companies in Malaysia, operating as Konsortium Express & Tours Pte Ltd in Singapore. They operate out of Golden Mile Tower (similar to Starmart Express), which is closer to Nicoll Highway MRT Station, rather than Golden Mile Complex. They have one night bus daily to Kuala Lumpur (Terminal Bersepadu Selatan) departing at 11.30pm.
If you have booked your ticket through Easybook like me, you have to visit their office to “check-in” before departure ie. get your bus number. No ticket exchange is necessary, they will write your bus number on the A4 printout. They also provide a carton of mineral water beside the check-in desk which you can help yourself to a bottle.
My trip required a bus transfer to the Malaysian checkpoint at Tanjung Kupang, with the counter staff claiming that they were “busy” today. Though it’s just slightly inconvenient, I don’t like this arrangement as you don’t feel at ease till you sit your actual bus despite the compulsory alighting at the two checkpoints for immigration and customs clearance anyway.
On the bright side, instead of a “PZ transfer” where they use a 44-seater Singapore-plate bus, they provided a Super VIP tour bus so at least this transfer is still in comfort and all passengers still get their seat numbers. The bus even departed around 5 minutes ahead of schedule as all passengers on the booking list have arrived.
After clearing Singapore and Malaysia immigration and customs via the Second Link, the actual Konsortium bus is already waiting for us after the Malaysian immigration and customs clearance. It was just a quick headcount of passengers and off we went.
While the interior felt a little older than the previous bus, the seats were slightly wider and the legroom more generous. No power sockets are available though.
I slept through most of the journey except when I woke up for a few seconds due to some bright lights outside which my groggy eyes told me that we were probably at Yong Peng for a rest stop. I didn’t go for a toilet or meal break though.
The bus arrived at Terminal Bersepadu Selatan at 4.45am, and stopped us at the Executive Taxi stand at the KLIA Transit station instead of the actual drop-off berths upstairs. Arriving here means that I would have to take the escalators back to the terminal as it was too early to get anywhere as the LRT only starts at 6am.
Walking across the bridge to the terminal, I realised that stopping us earlier at the KLIA Transit station was a great idea as there was a massive queue of buses at the arrival berths.
Despite being called Terminal Bersepadu Selatan or Southern Integrated Terminal, TBS serves buses from all over Malaysia including the east and the north, and not just limited to southern destinations, which explains the huge jam caused by arrivals from the eastern states.
Will I take this company again? With the cheaper ticket price as compared to Starmart (at the time of my booking) with similar departure timings and location, I don’t see why not.
You can get your Konsortium tickets online through Easybook. Click here for a step-by-step guide for Easybook.