Forest City to Singapore: the bus, the drive and what each one costs

The route in plain terms

The Second Link bridge is 1.92 km long and has been open since 2 January 1998. There are about 6 km between the Malaysian checkpoint and the Singapore one. Once you clear Tuas you are in the far west of Singapore. That suits anyone working in Tuas, Jurong or Boon Lay. If your office is in the city centre, you still have most of the island to cross after the border, so be honest with yourself about where you need to end up.

Between 300,000 and 400,000 people cross the Causeway and the Second Link every day, a figure Johor's transport committee chairman gave in March 2025. The queue is the part nobody can promise you. Everything else in this guide is a fixed number.

How far is Forest City from Singapore?

On a map, very close. The operator of the Forest City Special Financial Zone puts it about 2 km across the strait from Singapore. The road does not cross there, though. You go round to the Second Link, and that is the distance that counts.

These are the operator's own drive times, published on 17 July 2026. Read them as clear-road figures with no queue at either checkpoint.

Two of those rows cross a border and two do not. The Johor Bahru and Senai times are the ones you can plan a day around. The Singapore times are what the drive takes if both immigration halls wave you straight through, and on a Friday evening or the first morning of a school holiday the wait can be longer than the drive. The bus works the same way: about 20 minutes from the Transportation Hub to the Malaysian checkpoint, then the queues.

So when a brochure says "2 km from Singapore", read it as this: the water is 2 km wide, and the drive is about 40 minutes on a good day.

By bus: Causeway Link FC1

FC1 started on 15 December 2023 and is the public bus that links Forest City with the border. It runs point to point with no stops in between.

The operator's own Forest City page still shows the launch timetable of hourly departures from 5.30am. Check the Causeway Link LUGO app on the day you travel.

The trip works in four steps.

1. Ride FC1 from the hub to the Malaysian checkpoint.
2. Get off with your bags and clear Malaysian immigration.
3. Board an onward Causeway Link bus across the bridge and clear Singapore immigration at Tuas.
4. Stay on to Tuas Link MRT, Boon Lay or Jurong East, depending on the service you boarded.

With a ManjaLink card you tap in every time you board or re-board, and there is no tap out. For a commuter the sums are simple. Over 22 working days you pay about RM99 going out and S$99 coming back from Tuas Link. Nothing else on this page gets you across for less.

One caution if you are looking at a villa. FC1 leaves from the hub and does not stop on the way, so if the home you like is at the Golf Resort, ask how you would reach the hub each morning before you count on the bus.

Driving a Malaysian car into Singapore

Plenty of owners assume they will drive. Check these Land Transport Authority charges first.

There is no VEP fee on Saturdays, Sundays and Singapore public holidays, or when you enter from 5pm and leave by 2am the next day. You also need an Autopass card tied to the car before your first trip.

Put a normal office day through that table. Once the 10 free days are gone, a weekday daytime trip costs S$35 plus S$6.40 plus S$4.20 in tolls, which is S$45.60 before the Malaysian toll, ERP and parking. Over 22 weekdays that is about S$1,003. An evening or weekend trip in the same car drops to S$10.60. So the car makes sense for dinners, weekends and school holidays, and the bus makes sense for the working week.

Driving a Singapore car to Forest City

If you live in Singapore and want to use the home on weekends, the Malaysian side has its own list.

Apply for the VEP on the JPJ portal well before your first viewing trip. A car caught without it is not allowed to leave Malaysia until the permit is sorted out, which is a poor way to end a weekend.

What about the RTS Link?

The RTS Link is the rail shuttle between Bukit Chagar in Johor Bahru city and Woodlands North in Singapore. On 2 October 2026 the operator moved the start of passenger service from January to February 2027. The ride is about five minutes, and the line is built to carry up to 10,000 passengers an hour in each direction. It will change life for people who live near the Causeway.

It does not come to Forest City. Bukit Chagar is in Johor Bahru city centre, beside the Causeway, so a Forest City resident would have to drive into the city to reach the train and would then arrive in the north of Singapore. If an agent tells you the RTS makes Forest City a quick commute, ask them to show you the route on a map. Your crossing stays the Second Link.

Getting around on the Johor side

Since February 2025 Causeway Link has also run local routes from Forest City to EduCity, NSK Nusajaya and AEON Bukit Indah, with a weekend service to Kuala Lumpur. That covers a grocery run without a car. For most other errands you will want one.

Before you choose a home here

Do the trip once at the hour you would really travel, in both directions, before you pay a booking fee. A Saturday viewing tells you nothing about a Monday at 6.30am. Then decide what the home is for. As a weekend place for a Singapore family, the costs above are small. As a base for a daily office job in the Singapore city centre, the border sets your day, and you should want that tested before you sign.

If the commute works for you, compare the apartment collections with the landed homes and villas, read the lifestyle and location notes, and check the MM2H guide if you plan to stay long term.

Questions people ask about Forest City and Singapore