Singaporean family takes 7 hours to drive across Causeway, says didn't even get to pump petrol

In hopes of avoiding the Causeway jams, some drivers try to go in on a weekday. 

That's what Singaporean Shin Chen and his family thought they'll do, only to end up stuck in traffic for a whopping seven hours. 

And that's just to get from Johor Bahru (JB) city to Singapore. 

This 36-year-old shared on a TikTok video on Tuesday (Dec 20) that he visited JB with his family on Monday for a seafood meal and to do some shopping. 

But on his way home to Singapore, he encountered the mother of all traffic jams. 

In the five-second TikTok clip, he took a panning shot of the traffic jam from an overhead bridge at JB. 

Speaking to AsiaOne, he explained that his family was using the bridge to get to a petrol station's toilet on the other side of the road. 

The bulk of the jam was on the JB side and Shin Chen said they spent about six hours in the car inching towards JB Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex.

To make matters worse, while in JB, they missed the exit to the petrol station and didn't get a chance to top up their gas. 

During the many hours waiting in the car, Shin Chen said he watched YouTube videos, read articles and played Mobile Legends on his phone. 

And while the wait was painful, he said there was a silver lining — he managed to spend more time with his loved ones, including his elderly parents who were with him. 

"It's not every day you get to get stuck [for] seven hours with your parents as an adult that [has] already moved out of the house," he said. 

By the time this family crossed over to Singapore, it was already 3am, with them setting out on their journey home at around 9pm.

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Thankfully, traffic on Singapore's side was significantly better and the family managed to clear customs in around an hour. 

Will avoid JB for now 

Shin Chen said this is the worst traffic jam he has ever encountered on the Causeway. 

"I travel to JB quite frequently, but the most I've ever experienced was four hours stuck [in a jam]," he shared. 

"Seven hours is a new record though. Hopefully it’s a one off case," he also added on the comments thread. 

Shin Chen said that many people may be clearing their leave and heading up north for their year-end holidays, hence the jam.

He also said the Malaysia customs were not working at full capacity that day as there were some counters under renovation. 

Thanks to this experience, he said he won't be making a trip across the border anytime soon. 

"I will avoid it for a couple of months and wait for the 'Covid residual crowd' to die down a bit. But Malaysia is such a nice place to visit and I definitely don't [want to] miss it," he told AsiaOne. 

More jams ahead

If you're looking to drive up north, do note that continuous heavy traffic is expected at the land checkpoints over the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays, said Immigrations & Checkpoints Authority (ICA),

Traffic flow over the recent weekend (Dec 16 to Dec 18) through Woodlands and Tuas Checkpoints has returned to approximately 84 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels.

More than one million travellers have also passed through both land checkpoints in the same period, with about 359,000 crossing daily.

"Over the past weekend at Woodlands Checkpoint, departure traffic was very heavy with continuous tailbacks to BKE due to tailback from the Causeway," said ICA. 

"Those who wish to travel via the land checkpoints by car or bus this holiday season are advised to factor in additional time for immigration clearance as the traffic volume is generally high and long delays are expected."

On Friday (Dec 19), another family attempted to drive into Malaysia to head towards Ipoh. 

Such a trip would usually take around seven hours but the family was stuck in traffic for 16 hours.

Last weekend, several others also got stuck in traffic for hours at the Tuas Second Link. 

It was so bad that a group of people walked along the side of the road to get to Johor.

ALSO READ: Travelling to Malaysia for Chinese New Year? You can expect to pay more

melissateo@asiaone.com

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