Getting from Singapore to Bangkok without flying just got much easier with the opening of Malaysia’s higher-speed electric line from Johor Bahru on the Singapore Strait to Kuala Lumpur, cutting the travel time from seven hours or longer to 4 hours 20 minutes.
The new ETS service, operating twice a day, links at Kuala Lumpur to the northern ETS line that ends at Padang Besar on the Thai border for transfer to Thai trains to Bangkok. JB is the connecting point for travelers from Singapore; by next year it will have a station on Singapore’s metro system for easy connection.
The slow end of the Bangkok trip is the Thai portion; the train from the border to Bangkok takes about 14 hours, while the Kuala Lumpur ETS trip to the border is a bit over 6 hours. Thailand’s higher-speed rail plans for now are concentrated on links with China, but some improvement will come later this year when Thailand and Malaysia open direct rail connections, eliminating the border change.
