Iskandar Malaysia Bus Rapid Transit

Late March 2016, the IMBRT project received a green light from the government and expected to take off on 2017. The project was set to be done in three phases with the first phase scheduled to complete in 2020. Once completed, the BRT system was expected cover almost 90% of Iskandar Malaysia, up from the then 39% coverage.[8][7]

On 7 October 2017, the project was launched by the then Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak at the Progressive Johor Expo in Kota Iskandar. The BRT system was set to be developed at a cost of RM2.56 billion that would be funded by the Federal government for RM1 billion while the remaining funds would be financed through public-private partnership initiative. The system was said to have the elements of light rail transit or metro that would make it quicker than regular bus services. The prime minister ensured that the BRT system would be linked to the Rapid Transit System (RTS), the High Speed Rail (HSR) and intercity bus service. The project was then expected to be operational by 2021 and have a route spanning 51km and 39 stations.[1]

The public inspection for the project was started on November 2017 to get the feedback from the public and continued to 2018 along with development planning, land acquisitions and stations design to focus throughout the year. The routes were later updated to span over 300km, of which 50km were trunk routes while the rest would be feeder routes. The construction work was set to start on the first quarter on 2019 while the completion date for the first phase was push back to mid-2021.[6]

Upon the change of government due to 2018 general election, the new Pakatan Harapan state government confirmed that they are still committed to continuing the project and be given due priority by the Federal government with Johor Bahru-Kota Iskandar to be first route considered for implementation.[9] As of May 2019, the construction was again pushed back to the first quarter 2020 with the service to start on the first quarter 2022.[7]

As the rolling stocks of the project arrived on January 2021, the bus pilot testing programme of the system was set to be launched in the first quarter of the same year.[10]

On January 2021, the rolling stocks for IMBRT arrived in Johor from China. The rolling stocks that will be used for this project is an automated rapid transit (ART) type that was imported by Mobilus Sdn Bhd, a 51:49 joint venture company established between Ireka Corp Bhd and CRRC Urban Traffic Co Ltd, a member of CRRC Group. Malaysia will be the first country in the region to potentially adopt this technology.[10]

The ART is a multi-carriages that is equipped with sensors that read the virtual tracks on the road, enabling it to automatically navigate its own route while travelling up to 70km per hour and carrying more than 100 passengers per carriages. The capacity of an ART vehicle is expandable up to five carriages. It is considered as a medium capacity transit system for urban passenger transport using leading edge technology and allows for higher passenger capacity at a lower cost of implementation when compared to traditional light rail systems. It also operates on clean sources of energy such as electricity or hydrogen.[10]