No changes in fares for bus services to Johor for now

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http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/no-changes-fares-bus-services-johor-now?singlepage=true

Commuters using public buses and tour coaches to travel to Malaysia can breathe easy despite the recent announcements on the Causeway toll hikes, at least for now.

The three public bus services that go to Johor Baru are classified as basic services, for which fares can be revised only at the Public Transport Council’s (PTC) annual round of fare reviews.

And the PTC told TODAY it has not received any application from either SBS Transit, which runs services 160 and 170, or SMRT, which runs the 950 service, to revise these fares.

Fares for basic bus services, including 160, 170 and 950, were last revised in April. Queries to both public transport operators were unanswered by press time.

Similarly, private bus operators say they have no plans to raise ticket prices at the moment. Grassland Express and Tours’ general manager Tan Boon Huat and his counterpart at CitiExchange Express said their companies would absorb the hike.

Last month, Malaysia started charging higher tolls for entering Johor via the Causeway. It also imposed a new fee for exiting the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Complex at the Sultan Iskandar Building.

Last week, the Singapore Government announced that it would match these moves beginning Oct 1.

A drive across the Causeway will cost S$3.80 and RM9.70 from Oct 1, while private bus services, such as the Singapore-Johore Express, cost only S$2.40 one way.