SINGAPORE – Motorists who headed into Malaysia at the start of the long weekend in Singapore on Friday faced heavy congestion at both land checkpoints, leading to travel delays customary of public holidays.
The lengthy jams began in the morning, with the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) warning of “very heavy departure traffic” at the Tuas Second Link in a Facebook post at 11.15am.
In updates, the ICA said at 1pm that wait times at both checkpoints had lengthened to at least two hours, while at 2.23pm, it said that tailback from Malaysia’s checkpoint had reached Tuas checkpoint.
At 7.03pm, the ICA added that there was still car tailback from Malaysia’s checkpoint to the Second Link Bridge.
The jam on the Causeway, meanwhile, saw the queue of vehicles stretch to the Seletar Expressway since morning, and this continued throughout the day.
Live camera feeds of both checkpoints on the Land Transport Authority’s OneMotoring portal captured snaking columns of vehicles at a standstill.
Disgruntled motorists took to social media to share snapshots and videos of the jams.
“Those who didn’t know would think we were all fleeing from a big earthquake in Singapore to JB,” commented Facebook user Ea Ea Kin on one post about the congestion at Tuas.
“I finished watching Da Chang Jin,” said Facebook user Mic Lim on the same post, referring to the notoriously long 2003 South Korean drama series, which has a 54-episode run.
Traffic snarls at the two land checkpoints into Malaysia are a common sight on long weekends.
Friday marked the day Singaporeans went to the polls to elect their next president, and is a public holiday. The September school holidays are from Saturday to Sept 10, and Sept 11 is Teacher’s Day.
On Monday, ICA had advised Malaysia-bound motorists to factor in extra travelling time this weekend, noting that almost 250,000 people had passed through both checkpoints in the first week of the month-long June school holidays.
“During the weekend period of June 16 to 18, more than 1.2 million travellers, averaging more than 400,000 crossings per day, used the land checkpoints,” it had added.
“Those who departed by car had to wait for up to three hours before they were cleared through immigration during peak periods.”
Before travelling to the checkpoints, motorists are advised to check the traffic situation via the Land Transport Authority’s One Motoring website or the Expressway Monitoring Advisory System installed on the Bukit Timah and Ayer Rajah expressways.
