JOHOR BAHRU \u2013 In the event of any incident at the upcoming Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System <\/span><\/a>(RTS) Link<\/span><\/a>, Singapore and Malaysian authorities have protocols to jointly handle emergencies such as fires, medical crises and attacks.<\/p>\n Those were put to the test in a cross-border field training exercise at Wadi Hana RTS Link depot in Johor Bahru on Oct 27 that involved security, border protection and civil defence agencies from both nations.<\/p>\n It covered joint firefighting, medical triage, casualty evacuation and cross-border emergency response, according to a joint statement by Singapore\u2019s Ministry of Home Affairs and Malaysia\u2019s National Security Council (MKN).<\/p>\n \u201cWith the (RTS Link\u2019s) capacity to serve up to 10,000 passengers per hour per direction, ensuring the safety and security of RTS Link passengers, infrastructure and operations is a shared priority for both countries,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n Raja Nushirwan Zainal Abidin, director-general of the MKN, said at a press conference on Oct 28 concluding the exercise that the drill involved a fire in the cabin of a Johor Bahru-bound train that had crossed the halfway mark into Malaysian territory.<\/p>\n RTS staff in the train stopped the moving train and alerted ground control about the incident as officers from Singapore and Malaysian agencies, including the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Malaysia\u2019s Fire and Rescue Department, arrived to evacuate injured passengers and casualties to the Bukit Chagar station.<\/p>\n At Bukit Chagar, officers from Malaysia\u2019s Ministry of Health attended to the casualties and conducted medical triage.<\/p>\n The cross-border field training exercise involved security, border protection, and civil defence agencies from Singapore and Malaysia.<\/p>\n PHOTO: MHA<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Raja Nushirwan said the converse would happen if the train crossed into Singapore territory at what is known as Malaysia\u2019s Pier 47 and Singapore\u2019s Pier 48, with casualties taken to Woodlands North and triaged in Singapore instead.<\/p>\n At a closing ceremony for the exercise on Oct 28, Singapore\u2019s Second Minister for Home Affairs Sim Ann said: \u201cToday\u2019s exercise is not an end point. It is one milestone in a continuing journey for agencies from both our countries.\u201d<\/p>\n The ceremony at the Wadi Hana depot was also attended by Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.<\/p>\n The RTS Link, with a capacity of more than 600 passengers per train, connects Singapore\u2019s Woodlands North station to Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru, a ride that will take about five minutes.<\/p>\n Saifuddin said the RTS Link is on track for its scheduled launch in February 2027.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom now, aside from incident or crisis preparedness, other preparations are progressing on schedule,\u201d he said, adding that he had also inspected Malaysian immigration systems, autogates and scanners at the Bukit Chagar station.<\/p>\n The drill involved the Royal Malaysia Police, the Malaysia Border Control and Protection Agency, the Fire and Rescue Department, the Malaysian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Health. Singapore agencies included the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, the Singapore Police Force and the Singapore Civil Defence Force.<\/p>\n Singapore and Malaysia also enacted the necessary domestic laws in 2026 <\/span><\/a>to allow security agencies to handle incidents that may occur at the RTS Link. These include Singapore\u2019s Cross-Border Railways (Border Control Co-location) Act, which came into effect on Sept 30, and Malaysia\u2019s Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link Act, which was gazetted on June 26.<\/p>\n Under these new laws, officers from each country are granted reciprocal powers and legal protections to perform Customs, immigration and security screenings on foreign soil.<\/p>\n They also set clear emergency rules that allow security teams to respond to incidents along the RTS Link.<\/p>\n Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and Singapore\u2019s Second Minister for Home Affairs Sim Ann at a closing ceremony for the cross-border field training exercise on Oct 28.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Given that each train carries more than 600 passengers at short intervals across international borders, Sim highlighted that any disruption could swiftly impact large numbers of passengers navigating two separate legal and operational frameworks.<\/p>\n She noted that key positive outcomes from the drill included real-time communication between border agencies, rapid deployment from both sides, and clear incident command structures where personnel understood their respective duties.<\/p>\n \u201cResponding to an incident on board a moving cross-border train will therefore require swift information-sharing and coordination between agencies from both countries so that collectively we can deliver a coherent response to ensure the safety of passengers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Preparations for the field training exercise spanned eight months, beginning in March, and included a national tabletop exercise on Aug 19 and 20 and a bilateral tabletop session with Singapore on Sept 28 and 29, said Saifuddin.<\/p>\n \u201cThroughout that period, various scenarios have been tested, and assessments from observers and assessors confirm that both the tabletop and field exercises were a success,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is important that exercises of this scale take place before official RTS operations commence.<\/p>\n \u201cThis allows us to resolve operational challenges and test the effectiveness of joint Malaysia-Singapore Standard Operating Procedures for cross-border incidents.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n JOHOR BAHRU \u2013 In the event of any incident at the upcoming Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link, Singapore and Malaysian authorities have protocols…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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