Long queues were reported at Woodlands Checkpoint on Good Friday (April 3) morning as thousands of Malaysians who work here made their way home ahead of the long weekend, which coincides with Qing Ming Festival.
The traditional Chinese festival, also known as tomb sweeping day, falls on Sunday (April 5) this year, and is dedicated to honouring and remembering ancestors and loved ones who have died.
From around midnight, social media was abuzz with commuters sharing scenes of huge crowds waiting for buses to cross the Causeway after they have cleared Singapore’s immigration.
Some Malaysians reported taking four hours to complete their journeys from Queen Street bus terminal to across the Causeway. Others showed screenshots of their WhatsApp chats with family members spanning more than an hour as they waited in the bus queues.
‘Endless night’
Several posts also show hundreds of people standing nearly shoulder-to-shoulder as they wait for buses.
Tee Han Long, who shared a short video of the situation at the bus waiting area wrote: “This too shall pass.”
In an earlier photo post on Threads, he captioned a picture showing crowds making their way down steps to the bus bays with: “Endless night.”
However, checks by AsiaOne indicate that traffic along the Causeway during the said period was actually smooth.
There were also no advisories on heavy traffic issued by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on its social media platforms.
