- Singapore and Malaysia tested emergency plans for the RTS Link in a field drill at Wadi Hana depot. The exercise covered fires, medical triage, evacuation, and cross-border response.
- Officials said the drill showed quick communication, clear command lines, and fast action by agencies from both countries. Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said the RTS Link is still on track for launch in February 2027.
- New laws in both countries now give officers reciprocal powers and legal protection for customs, immigration, security checks, and emergency action on foreign soil.
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JOHOR BAHRU – In the event of any incident at the upcoming Johor-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link, Singapore and Malaysian authorities have protocols to jointly handle emergencies such as fires, medical crises and attacks.
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.
It covered joint firefighting, medical triage, casualty evacuation and cross-border emergency response, according to a joint statement by Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Malaysia’s National Security Council (MKN).
“With the 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,” the statement said.
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.
RTS staff in the train stopped the moving train and alerted ground control of the incident as officers from Singapore and Malaysian agencies, including the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Malaysia’s Fire and Rescue Department, arrived to evacuate injured passengers and casualties to the Bukit Chagar station.
At Bukit Chagar, officers from Malaysia’s Ministry of Health attended to the casualties and conducted medical triage.
Raja Nushirwan said the converse would happen if the train crossed into Singapore territory at what is known as Malaysia’s Pier 47 and Singapore’s Pier 48, where casualties would be taken to Woodlands North and triaged in Singapore instead.
At a closing ceremony for the exercise on Oct 28, Singapore’s Second Minister for Home Affairs Sim Ann said: “Today’s exercise is not an endpoint. It is one milestone in a continuing journey for agencies from both our countries.”
The ceremony at the Wadi Hana depot was also attended by Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
The RTS Link, with a capacity of more than 600 passengers per train, connects Singapore’s Woodlands North station to Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru, a ride that will take about five minutes.
Saifuddin said the RTS Link is on track for its scheduled launch in February 2027.
“From now, aside from incident or crisis preparedness, other preparations are progressing on schedule,” he said, adding that he had also inspected Malaysian immigration systems, autogates and scanners at the Bukit Chagar station.
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 & Checkpoints Authority, the Singapore Police Force and the Singapore Civil Defence Force.
Singapore and Malaysia also enacted the necessary domestic laws in 2026 to allow security agencies to handle incidents that may occur at the RTS Link.
These included Singapore’s Cross-Border Railways (Border Control Co-location) Act 2026, which came into effect on Sept 30, and Malaysia’s Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link Act 2026, which was gazetted on June 26.
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.
They also set clear emergency rules that allow security teams to respond to incidents along the RTS Link.
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 commuters navigating two separate legal and operational frameworks.
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.
“Responding 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,” she said
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.
“Throughout that period, various scenarios have been tested, and assessments from observers and assessors confirm that both the tabletop and field exercises were a success,“ he said.
“It is important that exercises of this scale take place before official RTS operations commence.
“This allows us to resolve operational challenges and test the effectiveness of joint Malaysia-Singapore Standard Operating Procedures for cross-border incidents.”