Starmart Express offers one of the most frequent departures from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, with buses departing every 30 to 60 minutes throughout the day. As my journey was on a long weekend, all bus tickets were sold at the regular fare of $30, so I picked the most convenient drop-off point for me in Kuala Lumpur – KL Sentral.
This article was originally published on 21 June 2018 on BusTravel Station.
One of Starmart’s new PA-plate Singapore buses used to shuttle passengers between Golden Mile Tower and Tanjung Kupang CIQ.
Queuing up to check-in for my bus at the Golden Mile Tower counter.
As I presented my Easybook Bus Booking Order Summary on my phone instead of a hardcopy printout, my trip details were written on a separate piece of paper instead.
“BUS 4 – PMR 6” means that I’m taking Bus 4 from Golden Mile Tower to Tanjung Kupang CIQ, and thereafter changing to my actual bus, PMR 6 from Tanjung Kupang CIQ to KL Sentral.
I was hoping that my Bus 4 would be one of Starmart’s new PA-plate buses, but instead I was ushered onto a regular double deck bus bound for Berjaya Times Square as my shuttle to Tanjung Kupang CIQ via Tuas Second Link.
My shuttle bus departed Golden Mile Tower at 12.20am – 21 minutes delayed from the original departure time of 12.59pm (The 11.58pm written on my ticket was wrong.).
Once at Tanjung Kupang CIQ, I spotted a solo double deck bus waiting out in the open space. With my bus bearing the plate of PMR 6, my gut feeling was that it’s my bus to KL Sentral. (Also, this shows how often I travel with Starmart.)
And yes, I was right.
As I was the first passenger to board the bus, here are some clean shots of the interior.
The lower deck seats 11 people, with only one single seat available facing the staircase.
The staircase up to the upper deck and down again to the driving console.
The upper deck seats 29 people.
The seat pitch on the left single seat column is quite tight with it having an additional row of seats as compared to the right double seat column.
The view from Seat 16, my original seat booked.
The tight legroom for the single seats.
The window view from my seat, thanks to the really cold air-conditioning.
The bus departed at 2.05am with just 6 other people on board.
Once the lights were switched off for the overnight journey, I moved myself to the last row where the emergency exit is to stretch out for the night.
The bus arrived at KL Sentral at 6.20am, which makes it a 6-hour end-to-end journey from Golden Mile Tower to KL Sentral. The bus did not stop at TBS before heading to KL Sentral, but was going onwards to Berjaya Times Square to drop some other passengers off.
The bus stopped outside the KL City Air Terminal where the KLIA Ekspres departs for KLIA and klia2, which is a lot more convenient than KL Sentral Monorail Station the last time I took this route.
Overall, the journey was great with the amount of space I had to myself on the double deck bus and the convenience of getting straight to KL Sentral from Singapore. I’d suggest getting on this route when there are no fluctuating Starmart fares on the day of your travel.
Ada jual ke teket skrang tuan