Official: Johor preparing autonomous transit proposal for Putrajaya

KUALA LUMPUR, May 7 — The Johor government will propose the construction of an Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) system to ease traffic congestion in Johor Baru, said state executive councillor Lee Ting Han.

He said the state will evaluate the proposal before sending it to the transport and economy ministries.

“The state government will be submitting a proposal to the federal government about the establishment of an elevated ART. It will be discussed and approved at the state level during the weekly Johor executive council meeting before it is submitted to the transport and economy ministries,” he was quoted saying in the Star.

Johor is anticipating increased traffic once the Rapid Transit System Link (RTS Link) connecting with Singapore starts operating in about three years.

“The RTS Link is able to transport 10,000 passengers per hour per direction, so we are forecasting a high volume of people traveling between Johor and Singapore daily. If each of them takes their own private vehicle, it will be severely congested in the Johor Baru city centre. We must find a way to disperse the crowd and the elevated ART is a good mode to do so,” he added.

Lee said the ART system has been successfully implemented in numerous countries and highlighted its upcoming implementation in Kuching, Sarawak.

He noted that a team from Johor visited Sarawak to study the feasibility and proposal procedures for the project. The insights gathered will be incorporated into the state government’s submission to the federal government.

Regarding the proposed elevated ART routes, Lee explained that the state intends to utilise the existing alignment of the Iskandar Malaysia Bus Rapid Transit (IMBRT) project, which was announced in 2018 and uses dedicated busways to serve key areas.

He expressed concerns that continuing the IMBRT with dedicated bus lanes might lead to competition with existing road users and hinder the project's success. Thus, the state is proposing an elevated ART following the IMBRT alignment, leveraging partially acquired land along the routes.

"So, we are proposing an elevated ART that follows the IMBRT alignment as the land acquisition along the routes has been done partially. Once we receive the federal approvals, we can start work as soon as possible because the clock is ticking. If we do not plan it (properly), we will be choking up the city centre,” he said.

In April, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the ministry would consider the proposal since Johor Baru needed an integrated public transport system to overcome congestion in the city centre.