Travel from Singapore to KL in Train : Economy Trip !

Recently we did a train journey from Singapore to KL using the KTM Train. We were exited to travel by train first time outside India!. In India I have traveled almost entire India by Train and it was good experience overall.

For traveling from Singapore to KL via train you have 2 options to book your travel :

1. Using the internet via the URL : http://www.ktmb.com.my/
2. Goto the Malaysian Railway Station in Singapore

So for those who would like to book Singapore-KL Ticket for their onward journeys and not in Singapore, using internet is good idea as you get e-tickets!.

Many people ask this question on Yahoo Answer or on other forums about purchasing Singapore-KL ticket in Malaysian Rinngit(MYR). Well this is very much possible using the Internet website, but not the complete journey fare!. So to discover this economy path we did our booking in 2 steps(Again the entire hassle of booking in 2 steps is only worth if you have many people traveling!) :

• Booked Johor Bahru To KL Ticket on Train # 12: EKSPRES SENANDUNG MALAM

• This train departs from Singapore and goes till IPOH
• When we did this journey it departs from Singapore @ 22:00
• Booked this ticket in MYR
• So the deal is that whenever on Internet you specify a From Location within Malaysia, the fare is in MYR,whereas if the departure location is Singapore the fare is in SGD. The fare is same always, just the currency changes :)
• For example the fare for 1 adult for Johor Bahru to KL was : MYR 37.00 and if I book Singapore to KL ticket using the same website and same train # 12 the fare shown is SGD 38.00 :) - Internet is smart and flips the currency when you are going from Singapore.
• So the website is smart - Now the other option to save money is to Book 2 tickets - 1 from Singpore to Johor in SGD(which is SGD 6.00). Well the website do not allow you to do that!. They knew that passengers globally are smart too and would do this.
• So now for Singapore to Johor Bahru Ticket
• You need to visit the Train Station located in Singapore personally(or you can ask your dear friend in Singapore to do that for you!)
• Well here is another catch. Now this is something I did not find on internet when searching for the similar information and that's where icare2share :)
• On the ticket counter if you ask for the Singapore to Johor Bahru Ticket the person at the counter knows your intentions!. So they do not allow you to book this SG-JB ticket more than 1 day in advance - smart huh!

So there you go ..You have bought 2 tickets for the complete Singapore To KL(read as SENTRAL KUALA LUMPUR on the KTM website) on almost 50% discount. For example if have 10 friends going to a Singapore to KL Trip on Train - look at the savings !

10 SG to JB Tickets : SGD 60.00(approx MYR 144)
10 JB to KL Tickets : MYR 370.00

So the total is MYR 544 instead of SGD 380(approx MYR 908). There u go! ...You have saved MYR 364 which is decent money in Malaysia to enjoy with - figure out what you can do with this savings on your trip to Malaysia!. Well as already mentioned, the savings are good only more than 4+ passengers are traveling together.

No comes the hard part of playing this game! - Which is saving money and loosing your sleep!.

When you board the train at the Singapore station, you need to goto the seat which is given on the SG To JB ticket!. Which could be compartment L1(first from the engine) and your JB To KL ticket could have alloted you L5 compartment which is 5th from the engine!. So to avoid this choose the First possible compartment in the Train on your JB To KL Ticket and pray! - but most likely the SG to JB ticket would be in L1 ...again no idea how this works.

Train starts from Singapore at 22:00(10:00 pm). It was pretty much on time that day. You need to clear immigration(part1!) at the KTM Railway Station in Singapore before boarding, so to save time and hassle of writing in low light of platform please do fill up the immigration forms before reaching the immigration counters.

After immigration(which is actually just a stamp on your form that you are leaving Singapore by this Train # 12). You board the Train and it starts and roams the entire Singapore for almost 1 hour before reaching the Woodlands Checkpoint!.

You need to get down at the Woodlands Checkpoint from your train(you have an option to keep the luggage at the train itself(unattended!). Do the Immigration at Singapore Checkpoints and get back to your trains(this time don't forget to go back to your Singapore-JB Seat as you are still not in JB). The ticket checker comes sometime in between Singapore to JB journey to check your tickets.

You reach JB at around 23:00(11:00 pm) or so. Once you are at JB, you can get down and walk towards your JB to KL Seat! - Now this is the hard part if your seat before was at L1 compartment and now in L5 compartment...but then you always wanted to save some money for more fun in Malaysia :)

The train journey is good overall with no snacks options @ JB ..so carry something with you. Also our luck was bad the train stopped at JB for more than hour due to crossing of another train(wow this is a single track to KL!). It still reached KL at around 7am in the morning. So it was ok!

enjoy
Sandeep