More than 40,000 land VTL tickets sold hours after quota was reinstated

More than 40,000 bus tickets under the land vaccinated travel lane (VTL) arrangement between Singapore and Malaysia were sold on Wednesday (Feb 16) and Thursday after quotas were fully reinstated for trips starting from Feb 22.

One bus operator has sold all of its available tickets until March 21.

Singapore's Transtar Travel started selling additional land VTL tickets for trips between Feb 22 and March 21 from 6pm on Wednesday.

By about 8pm, around 40 per cent of the tickets had already been snapped up, and they were sold out by midnight, a spokesman told The Straits Times.

The company is currently operating 24 VTL bus services between Woodlands and Larkin Sentral in Johor Baru daily - 12 in each direction.

This will be increased to a total of 48 services from Feb 22.

Meanwhile, Malaysian bus operator Causeway Link started selling additional VTL tickets from 10am on Thursday, but only for trips between Feb 22 and Feb 28.

All 15,120 tickets were sold out by 11.30am, said a spokesman for the company.

Additional VTL tickets for the month of March will be released soon, she said.

"We need to make some improvements to the (booking) system before we open it up," the spokesman added.

The company currently operates 30 bus services between Queen Street and Larkin Sentral daily.

This will be reinstated to 60 services from Feb 22.

The release of additional land VTL tickets was met with overwhelming demand, with many would-be travellers taking to social media to voice their frustrations at the long waiting time and system errors they faced.

Some have also accused scalpers of buying tickets and reselling them on e-commerce platforms, with images posted of bus tickets being resold for more than $100.

Adult bus tickets usually cost $15 in Singapore and RM20 ($6.40) in Malaysia.

When the land VTL scheme first launched on Nov 29 last year, up to 2,880 travellers were allowed to cross the Causeway using designated buses each day.

This capacity was increased to 4,320 people, but from Dec 22 to Jan 20, new ticket sales were suspended and the quota has halved for trips from Jan 21 this year onwards.

This was to delay the spread of the Omicron variant.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said that it restored the land VTL quota as imported Covid-19 cases are now unlikely to affect the trajectory of local infections.

Border measures for land VTL travellers will also be streamlined.

From Feb 21, 11.59pm, the enhanced testing protocol requiring unsupervised self-swab antigen rapid tests (ARTs) on days 2 to 7 of arrival will cease, so land VTL travellers will have to do only a pre-departure test and an on-arrival test.

For the on-arrival test, instead of the supervised self-swab ART required upon arrival at the bus terminal, there will be a supervised self-swab ART within 24 hours of arrival at a Quick Test Centre or Combined Test Centre.

Meanwhile, only work permit holders and short-term visitors eligible to travel via the land VTL will have to apply for a vaccinated travel pass (VTP) now.

Other long-term pass holders will no longer have to apply for a VTP.

MTI said that the Government will continue to review the border measures and progressively expand land VTL scheme in a safe and calibrated manner, taking into account the public health situation in both countries and globally.

Singapore is also in discussions with Malaysia on expanding the land VTL scheme to include private vehicles and coaches, Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong, who co-chairs the multi-ministry task force tackling Covid-19, said.

Before borders were shut in March 2020, about 415,000 people travelled across Woodlands Causeway and Tuas Second Link daily.