Buses, a five-minute train, and now a cross-border taxi that can drop you off almost anywhere — no VEP, no fuel check, no queue built for a vehicle.
Not driving is usually the easier decision at this crossing, not the compromise one. No Vehicle Entry Permit to arrange, no three-quarter tank to watch, no lane built and enforced around a car specifically — just pick the option that matches what you actually want out of the trip.
Causeway Link's own fleet runs point to point across both checkpoints — Kranji, Queen Street, Newton and Jurong East on the Singapore side, JB Custom and a handful of JB-side interchanges on the other. Cheapest option here by a clear margin, and the one most people mean when they say "just take the bus." Full route-by-route breakdown, including which service goes where, is in our Causeway Link guide.
These start as ordinary Singapore public buses and carry straight through the checkpoint — useful if your starting point is already near a stop like Kranji or Jurong East Interchange rather than a dedicated CW pickup point. Same fare logic as any SBS/SMRT ride until you hit the crossing itself. Stop-by-stop detail is in our SBS 160/170/170X guide.
The fastest way to actually cross — about five minutes of causeway by rail, JB Sentral to Woodlands CIQ. The catch isn't the ride, it's the seat: popular slots sell out days ahead, and turning up hoping for a same-day ticket during peak hours is close to a lottery. Full schedule and booking timing in our KTM Shuttle guide.
The most car-like of the car-free options, and the one that changed most recently. As of 4 May 2026, licensed cross-border taxis can drop passengers off anywhere in Singapore, and across a wider stretch of the Johor side (Johor Bahru, Iskandar Puteri, Forest City, Kulai and Senai), under an enhanced scheme jointly announced by Singapore's and Malaysia's transport ministries. Pick-up in the country you're not registered in is still limited to designated points or ride-hail apps — not a street hail — but the old restriction of fixed drop-off zones on both ends is gone.
Source: Joint statement, Ministry of Transport Singapore and Ministry of Transport Malaysia, effective 4 May 2026 (checked 2026-08-29).
Buses and the train are cheapest and simplest to understand, but you're on someone else's timetable and walking your own bags through immigration either way. A cross-border taxi costs meaningfully more, but it's door to door on both sides now — the closest this crossing gets to a car experience without actually owning the fuel-check and VEP headache that comes with driving yourself.
If you're optimising for minutes on the crossing itself, the train wins and nothing else is close. If you're optimising for not thinking about a transfer at all, the taxi's May 2026 expansion is the newer, pricier answer — not the default one yet for most regular crossers.