No plans to 'fully liberalise' cross-border ride-hailing services: LTA

CBTS remains the official arrangement.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has clarified that there are no plans to allow cross-border ride-hailing services between Singapore and Malaysia.

This comes after a meeting between Singaporean and Malaysian officials on 1 August to discuss cross-border transport issues.

During the meeting, the idea of permitting e-hailing services to operate across the border was raised, but no agreement was reached.

"LTA has no plan to fully liberalise cross-border point-to-point transport via ride-hail services,” the authority said in a statement.

Currently, the Cross Border Taxi Scheme (CBTS) allows up to 200 licensed taxis from each country to operate cross-border trips. These taxis can only pick up and drop off passengers at designated points: Larkin Sentral in Johor Bahru for Singapore taxis, and Ban San Street Terminal in Singapore for Malaysian taxis.

LTA noted that the current taxi quota is not fully used. To improve convenience for commuters, LTA plans to push for full use of the quota, consider expanding the number of boarding and alighting points, and explore the use of apps to book licensed cross-border taxi rides.

All changes to the scheme must be agreed upon by both governments.

Separately, Malaysian officials have requested that Singapore’s cross-border bus services begin operations from Johor Bahru at 4:00am to ease morning congestion.

LTA is currently assessing the feasibility of this request. A central consideration is ensuring that the timing of cross-border buses aligns with the start of local bus and MRT services in Singapore.

To support this, the authority is in discussions with both cross-border and private bus operators on the possibility of earlier departures, including premium services at higher fares.