Starmart Express from KL Berjaya Times Square to Singapore Golden Mile Tower Bus Review

It’s been a while since I’ve taken Starmart Express. Heading back to Singapore from KL, I had not expected any massive traffic jams, hence I booked this city-to-city route departing at 3.30pm, to get back to Singapore in good time. But alas, at the start of the Christmas long weekend, free tolls were announced, making me regret booking my bus ticket too early, and I should have flown or taken the train back instead. Nevertheless, since my ticket was paid for already, I decided to go ahead with my bus ride, taking way longer than I had expected.

Kuala Lumpur Berjaya Times Square (Imbi Monorail Station)

Starmart Express departs from downtown Kuala Lumpur at Berjaya Times Square, below Imbi Monorail Station. This is a convenient pick-up point accessible by the KL Monorail Line without the need to deal with big terminal formalities.

Imbi Monorail Station is just in front of Berjaya Times Square.

The Starmart Express counter is under the escalator leading up to Imbi Monorail Station.

I had booked my ticket in advance on Easybook. Check-in is required at the counter, but it was a simple process with tickets already printed out. All I needed to give was my name to the counter staff and she gave me my ticket printout.

My 3.30pm bus was already waiting in front of the counter when I got there at 3.15pm.

My booked single seat at 16.

The legroom on board Starmart Express. Starmart Express’ single-deck buses are 27-seaters, so there are 9 rows of seats, giving each row more legroom. A calf rest is also available to make the seat even more comfortable.

There was a drinks holder on the seat back in front, but these have since been removed.

All drinks holders are missing, hence I think that they have been deliberately removed, rather than been damaged.

My ticket for my Starmart Express bus from KL Berjaya Times Square to Singapore Golden Mile Tower.

Each seat supposedly has a massage function and a USB port for charging, but this was not working for me. My seat neighbour at 17, on the other hand, had his seat functions functioning, so it wasn’t a case of the driver not switching on the functions.

My 3.30pm Starmart Express bus departed from KL Berjaya Times Square at 3.33pm – 3 minutes delayed. Not too bad, and there was going to be another stop anyway.

Kuala Lumpur Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS)

My 3.30pm Starmart Express bus from KL Berjaya Times Square is also the 4pm bus from KL Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS). Most passengers had already boarded from Berjaya Times Square, so only a handful of passengers boarded at TBS, making the process quite fast.

My 3.30pm Starmart Express bus departed from KL Berjaya Times Square at 4.03pm – 3 minutes delayed due to the TBS gate staff only starting to print the final manifest for the driver at 4.00pm sharp, even though all passengers had boarded already.

Passing by the Boeing 737 with portraits of Malaysian Kings at The Mines Wellness City.

Passing through Mines South Toll Plaza on the Sungai Besi Expressway.

It was slow to standstill traffic from entering the PLUS Highway all the way till Rembau, crawling for almost 4 hours before the toilet break. The Google Maps predictions were highly inaccurate, as I guess the AI couldn’t work when calculating traffic moving at 0km/h.

Kampung Bemban Lay-by (Southbound)

My Starmart Express bus made a brief stop at Kampung Bemban Lay-by (Southbound) for a toilet break. Toilets were experiencing heavy usage with many buses and cars stopping at the same time.

Food trucks selling drinks and snacks are also available, but about half were already closing for the day with no more food left for sale.

PETRONAS R&R Machap (Southbound)

After more crawling traffic at around Yong Peng, my Starmart Express bus made another stop for refuelling and another toilet break while at it. A Mesra shop is available with pricey snacks, but alas, I grabbed a sandwich here as my dinner.

Heading back to board the bus after my toilet and dinner break.

Tanjung Kupang Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ Complex

With the jams on the highway already, there were no crowds at Tanjung Kupang Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ Complex for Malaysia immigration, and it was a private immigration hall for my Starmart Express bus. Many buses followed behind though.

Tuas Checkpoint

Same at Tuas Checkpoint, it was private Singapore immigration for my bus too.

Singapore Golden Mile Tower

My Starmart Express arrived at Singapore Golden Mile Tower at 12.21am, making this a journey of 8 hours and 51 minutes. That’s almost 9 hours of bus ride, of what I thought would have been a 6-hour journey.

Ironically, this is still the fastest possible bus ride on my day of travel, as the KL-Singapore Starmart Express service is a non-stop fuss-free route, with no dinner stop and detours to other destinations along the way.

Conclusion

This had been an extremely long bus ride through no fault of Starmart Express, but rather, the demands of the PLUS Highway which offered free tolls on a super peak weekend, transforming the expressway into a car park. In fact, I was lucky to be in Starmart Express for the jam with the better legroom (as compared with a 30-seater bus), good air-conditioning, and big single seat, on a non-stop bus from KL to Singapore, with stops only for toilet breaks and immigration.