Johor Bahru Sentral station

It was said that the history of Johor railway developments started in the 1869 where Sultan Abu Bakar (then still Maharaja) officiated construction of Johore Railway, which line are planned to be built northwards towards Gunung Pulai, 18 miles from the terminus here. While the line was indeed built from Johor Bahru and it has been operating in 1875 for the first 6 miles of construction, it was not clear for what function it serves and if Johor Bahru has a proper station standing here until 1889 where the railway is reported defunct.[4]

Former Johor Bahru railway station opened in 1909, now turned into the KTM Museum, but never open to the public.

The old station of Johor Bahru under Johore State Railway was opened in 1909 in conjunction of completion of the final West Coast main link sector from Gemas to Johor Bahru after a 5 year construction starting in 1904. As there was no land access to Singapore yet at that time, Johor Bahru used to be the southernmost terminus for Federated Malay State Railways trains in Malay Peninsular states. However FMSR has been running a combined trains and ferry services between both peninsular railway networks and Singapore Government Railways network.[5] Both Johore Government Railways and Singapore Government Railways has been integrated under FMSR administration on 1912.[6]

The station is able to serve services from linked FMSR railways of Malaya especially from West Coast states up to Penang and Pahang to the east from the start, and as FMSR network gradually spread, it later able to serve trains to Kedah, Perlis and Kelantan as well. It later able to serve trains up to Bangkok when FMSR connects to State Railways of Thailand network via Padang Besar in 1918 and as East Coast sector of Gua Musang completes construction in 1931, the East Coast line has been connected to SRT via Sungai Golok as well.[7]

After Johore Causeway completed in 1923, trains has been able to serve southward to Tank Road in Singapore. The trains would later terminate at Tanjong Pagar station in Keppel Road after its opening in 1932. However Johor Bahru has since become one of the main stations of the rail network serving express and mail trains of the railway services especially between the town and Singapore.

Johor Bahru station again becoming the terminus for the networks as Japanese occupation strikes in 1942 forced British to blow up the Causeway in order to slow down Imperial Japanese Army entry to Singapore, severing the only train connection to Singapore. The connection was restored in 1946 after British control was reinstated in both states. In 1948, Johor Bahru station is now under Malayan Railways and later after independence, the current Keretapi Tanah Melayu.

As politics changed the state of the regions which ultimately made Singapore and Malaya, later Malaysia, two different countries, Johor Bahru station now lies on the international border between the two countries. However local and express trains remains running uninterrupted between the two countries with Johor Bahru station remains an important stop for the trains. For a while in the 1980s, it also serve Railbus service between Kulai and Singapore.

Different from road entries on the causeway, Johor Bahru station which facilitate railway entries between the two countries did not really have any immigration and custom clearance facilities for some decades after first border control between the countries in 1967, as the matters is settled in Tanjong Pagar station instead. But as 1990 Point of Agreement between Malaysia and Singapore are signed and later on the whole disputes about the agreement rose, it forced Johor Bahru station to provide an immigration and customs clearance service for Singapore-bound trains while Malaysia clearance decided to stay in Tanjong Pagar for northbound trains.[8] This practice remains until today, with changes being now Johor Bahru Sentral replaces the Singapore-bound part and Woodlands train checkpoint replaces the Malaysia-bound part after Tanjong Pagar station closes.

This station closes on 21 October 2010 as Johor Bahru Sentral replaces its purpose, with plans is to convert it as a railway museum.

Johor Bahru Sentral is one of the proposed facilities of Malaysia's Southern Integrated Gateway which aims to provide an integrated entry hub for vehicles from Singapore to enter Malaysia via Johor Bahru, with others being a new Customs, Immigration and Quarantine complex and also a new bridge that aims to replace the Causeway. While the bridge plans is cancelled indefinitely, the new CIQ opens in 2008 for vehicular access. The whole project costed RM2.5 billion.

Johor Bahru Sentral was later opened for train services replacing the old station in 21 October 2010 with Sultan Ibrahim Ismail officiating the opening ceremony, and has since taken over the role as the main station for Johor Bahru. The clearance for Singapore-bound train services is also transferred here.

Although major Intercity trains stopped here in its early years of opening, the station later saw a sharp decrease in passengers as the express services were reduced and later terminated in 2016 for many major West Coast services. Only three trips of Ekspres Selatan up to Pulau Sebang/Tampin and Gemas (with the current schedule only listed Gemas as the northernmost terminus) and a trip of Ekspres Rakyat Timuran to Tumpat, Kelantan is being served by this station. Cross-border service is now branded as Shuttle Tebrau, running exclusively between Johor Bahru Sentral and Woodlands Train Checkpoint.

The COVID-19 pandemic also affected services, but were gradually restored by 2022. Between January and June 2022, however, the station closed as part of the project to double the railway tracks between Johor Bahru and Gemas. The station reopened in mid-June 2022 with the resumption of Shuttle Tebrau, and both Ekspres Selatan and Ekspres Rakyat Timuran returned in July. The double-tracking project is being followed up by electrification of the line between Johor Bahru and Gemas, expected to be complete by 2025. Once operating, KTM ETS will be able to serve this station, allowing for faster travel to Kuala Lumpur and beyond. The station building has been built with this plan in mind, hence no major makeover is necessary as compared to other stations.

The concourse area, accessible to public locates ticket booths and machines for the trains, KFC fast food store, various convenience stores, phone shops, souvenir shops and also public waiting areas. This place is publicly accessible from Jalan Tun Razak/JBCC and Jalan Jim Quee/CIQ entrances, and is also places that people always go through from CIQ complex to Johor Bahru city center areas (via Jalan Tun Razak/JBCC entrance) and vice versa.

This floor also locates passenger area entrance gates with automated control machines to check valid tickets. It is divided into two entrances, Gate A is for Shuttle Tebrau passenger to Woodlands which requires valid passport checks to enter alongside valid ticket and Gate B is for KTM Intercity passengers to other areas.

These two floors is passenger-limited areas in which only those who have valid tickets could enter from the second floor.

The first floor is passenger-only waiting area, however it is separated between Intercity and Shuttle Tebrau passengers. Shuttle Tebrau passenger area also includes Malaysia custom and immigration clearance area as passenger will cross international border to Singapore.

The platform are is divided into 6 platforms in 3 island platform formation, with only 4 platforms is used for train services. Platform 1 and 2 serves KTM Intercity train from Gate B section, while Platform 3 and 4, accessible from Gate A side is for Shuttle Tebrau.[9]

JB Sentral bus terminal

A local bus terminal serving the city areas is located on Jalan Jim Quee side of the terminal, although one must walk out and take an escalator before the CIQ footbridge to reach the terminal.

Most local buses to destinations like Kulai, Gelang Patah, Pasir Gudang and Kota Tinggi is available from the terminal and frequent services to Larkin Sentral intercity bus terminal and Senai International Airport is also available from the terminal. While cross-border buses to Singapore supposed to stop at the hub, most of the buses only terminates or stops at CIQ bus hub which is located separately in CIQ building.[10]

Taxi stands is also available from both sides of the entrances, but cross-border taxis is only limited on Jalan Tun Razak side.