SINGAPORE — A Malaysian returning to Kuala Lumpur from Singapore missed her bus due to delays at the Johor Bahru customs. She was then approached by someone in charge who offered another seat for an additional fee of S$154 (RM500).
The S$154 was on top of the initial bus ticket. Being a young girl with only S$184, stranded alone in the middle of the night at the customs so far away from home, she had no choice but to pay, said the cousin.
Her cousin also asked if collecting the “exorbitant additional payments” was appropriate or lawful when it wasn’t the passengers’ fault for getting stranded at customs. “Bus drivers and whoever is in charge of facilitating passengers from the customs back their buses SHOULD NOT be taking advantage of these poor stranded passengers.”
The cousin of the passenger took to Twitter on Jan 21 to share the incident with the online community. He explained that his cousin spent around four hours getting through the Johor Bahru customs. “As a consequence of this extremely long delay due to CNY, the bus that she was supposed to take, left the customs, leaving her and apparently a few other passengers at the customs.”
Unprivate my twitter to bring this to YB’s attention @anthonyloke
Happy New Year YB.
There’s something that I would like to highlight to your attention. My cousin just came back, via bus, from Singapore at midnight and arrived at KL at dawn earlier today (21.01.2023).
1/n
— Lhx (@hennxhen) January 21, 2023
The woman was told that the bus could not wait an extended time as it would cause more congestion. “Problem here is that the customs department should have envisaged such congestion during festivities and should not be chasing the buses away,” said the Twitter user.
He asked what would happen to the other passengers heading to Johor Bahru from different areas in Singapore but eventually left behind by their buses. “Are they supposed to head back to Sg?”
“What happened after is worse. My cousin and the other passengers were then approached by a person who apparently is the person in charge (PIC). This PIC is seen to be leading a group of left-behind passengers and segregating them into different new buses that are heading to the passengers’ supposed destinations.”
Although the PIC was first deemed a “knight in shining armour” saving the day, it was revealed that there was a price to pay.
He further urged the relevant authorities to look into the matter. /TISG
https://theindependent.sg/k-shanmugam-inconsiderate-drivers-who-cut-queues-take-wrong-lanes-add-to-tuas-woodlands-checkpoint-traffic-congestion/