KTM Shuttle Tebrau 83dn from JB Sentral to Woodlands CIQ Train Review (Connection from Ekspres Selatan 43dn)

KTM Shuttle Tebrau 83dn is the daily 3.15pm train from JB Sentral to Woodlands CIQ, offering a connection from Ekspres Selatan 43dn, with 1 hour between the 2 trains, and thus 50 minutes from Ekspres Selatan 43dn train arrival time at 2.15pm, to Shuttle Tebrau 83dn gate closing time at 3.05pm. While it’s not the fastest transfer, I still took Shuttle Tebrau 83dn anyway, so that I can properly say that I took the train from Bangkok to Singapore, instead of only the train Bangkok to JB and then bus to Singapore, even though immediately taking the bus from Bangunan Sultan Iskandar would have potentially got me home by the time I cleared Singapore immigration after alighting from the Shuttle Tebrau 83dn in more than 1 hour’s time.

Johor Bahru Sentral Railway Station (JB Sentral)

There was a long queue of passengers at JB Sentral Gate A at gate opening time 30 minutes before departure.

Shuttle Tebrau boarding gates at JB Sentral open 30 minutes before departure and close 10 minutes before departure.

I waited for the crowd to subside before heading through the boarding gates.

Heading down the escalator to Malaysia immigration. Immigration counters are available on both sides at the end of the path.

I arrived at the waiting area after immigration, still needing to wait for the gate to open. Do note that while multiple queue lines may be formed, there is absolutely no point of queuing in them.

Once the gate opens, it is a free-for-all flow through the 1 narrow door, and the queue lines quickly becomes 1 crowd.

KTM Shuttle Tebrau 83dn

Heading down to Platform 4 for boarding.

25 Class Locomotive 25205 Berlian will be leading my Shuttle Tebrau 83dn on the southern end.

ASC (Air-conditioned Second Class)

The interior of the ASC (Hyundai-Padu Sedia) coach, with 60 seats in a 2+2 configuration in a fixed forward or reverse direction.

The legroom on board the ASC (Hyundai-Padu Sedia) coach.

My front-most ASC (Hyundai-Padu Sedia) coach was surprisingly fully seated, which is weird. The front coach is usually the emptiest. However, a bulk of passengers here were not local Malaysians or Singaporeans, so they probably all did not know the trick of using the rear coaches.

Heading out of JB Sentral. Only Platforms 3 and 4 still have tracks leading south, with the tracks at the ends of Platforms 1, 2, 5, and 6 now removed to facilitate RTS Link construction works.

The RTS Link marine viaducts between Malaysia and Singapore are coming up. Once the RTS Link is opened, 6 months later, the KTM railway line between JB Sentral and Woodlands CIQ will cease operations in accordance with the Malaysia-Singapore Points of Agreement Supplement of 2010.

Crossing the border from Malaysia to Singapore on the Johor-Singapore Causeway. The full train journey takes just 5 minutes.

Woodlands Train Checkpoint (Woodlands CIQ)

Singapore immigration and customs clearance follows at Woodlands Train Checkpoint (Woodlands CIQ). Photos and videos are not allowed to be taken inside Woodlands Train Checkpoint (Woodlands CIQ).

The façade of Woodlands Train Checkpoint (Woodlands CIQ).

Bus Stop 46069 (Woodlands Train Checkpoint) has many buses continuing onwards to various MRT stations.

Conclusion

It is a nice end to my train journey from Bangkok to Singapore, arriving by the Shuttle Tebrau 83dn properly on Singapore soil. Unfortunately, Woodlands Train Checkpoint (Woodlands CIQ) is just barely a few meters away from the coast of mainland Singapore, but Singapore land is Singapore land I guess. Waiting for the Shuttle Tebrau 83dn connection and thereafter onward travel by public transport back home also made my journey much longer than if I had taken an express bus starting from BSI directly to Singapore. But at least I have taken KTM as south as possible on this railway trip.