JB Sentral, Johor Bahru

JB Sentral, Johor Bahru (14 September, 2016)

JB Sentral (GPS: 1.4631, 103.76464) is the transportation hub for Johor Bahru. Incorporating the railway station and bus terminal, it is part of the Southern Integrated Gateway, also called Gerbang Selatan Bersepadu, that includes the Sultan Iskandar CIQ Complex next to it. JB Sentral, when fully completed, will be the transportation hub for Johor Bahru and the southern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The CIQ complex was opened to vehicles on 16 December, 2008, while passengers start using JB Sentral since February 2009. At time of writing (Aug 2009), the trains still use the old Johor Bahru Station.

JB Sentral was built to relieve the congestion in the Johor Bahru Central Business District. It became operational on 21 October, 2010. The North South Expressway is linked directly to the new CIQ Complex through the Johor Bahru Inner Ring Road. This is done to improve traffic flow between Johor Bahru and Singapore.

Total built-up area of JB Sental is 79,000 square meters, almost twice the size of KL Sentral, which is 42,000 square meters. It has a railway station as well as a bus station. The bus station takes up 9500 square meters of space, and is able to handle up to 15,000 bus passengers per hour. There will also be 2,000 parking spaces at JB Sentral.

JB Sentral is the southernmost railway station on mainland Asia. The penultimate station is the Kempas Baru Railway Station. The next railway station is the Woodlands Train Checkpoint in Singapore. However, from 1 July 2015, passengers travelling on the KTM Intercity between JB Sentral and Woodlands Train Checkpoint have to take the Shuttle Tebrau, a dedicated train service that plies the route between the two checkpoints. The journey on the Shuttle Tebrau between the two stations is just 5 minutes. This does not apply to the Eastern and Oriental Express, the luxury train that runs between Woodlands Train Checkpoint in Singapore and Hua Lamphong Railway Station in Bangkok, with stops in Kuala Lumpur, Butterworth and Kanchanaburi, and another service between Bangkok and Vientiane.

The old Johor Bahru Railway Station is located next to JB Sentral. It has been gazetted as a heritage site. The building is supposed to house the Johor Bahru Railway Museum, but during my visit in September 2016, it appeared that the museum was not operational. Presently (Oct 2016), JB Sentral is serviced by the KTM Intercity service. The station is the main station for the proposed Johor Bahru Rapid Transit System, or JB Metro

To facilitate people movement, a pedestrian bridge is built to connect JB Sentral to Johor Bahru City Square and Kompleks Tun Abdul Razak.