Originally Posted by
gt_croz
I took the first class SIN-KUL train last year about this time. The trip doesn't afford a lot of time for sleeping (or showering the next morning for that matter) and you have the added annoyance of riding the train for 30-45 minutes just to have to disembark at the Malaysian border to go through immigration. That takes a long time while you wait for the entire train to clear.
Put the blame where it belongs -- you have to disembark at
Singapore exit immigration. As another poster noted, Malaysian immigration is handled at the train station, before you get on the train; likewise, on the way into Singapore, Malaysian passport control is done on board the train but the Singaporeans make you disembark.
The history behind this weirdness: Singapore and Malaysian immigration used to be both sensibly located at the Singapore station. Singapore built a massive new immigration complex at Woodlands, and Malaysia said they'd move to it. Then Malaysia realized that Singapore really wanted to grab back the train line (occupying acres of primo property in central Singapore), and stayed put, while Singapore went and moved to Woodlands anyway, and has since done its level best to make using the train as inconvenient as possible. Then again, KTMB also has its fair share of stupidity, eg. the ludicrous pretense that S$1 = RM1 when buying any tickets out of Singapore...