> Quick view: From 20 August 2026, Causeway Link buses take no cash on board at Queen Street Bus Terminal (CW2) and Newton Circus (CW5). Tap a ManjaLink card, contactless Visa or Mastercard, or EZ-Link, or scan a single-journey e-ticket from the LUGO app. Cash-only travellers must buy before boarding — ManjaLink counter at Queen Street, ground staff at Newton. Every other Causeway Link stop goes cashless on 1 October 2026.
If you have ever fumbled for a five-dollar note in the CW2 queue at Queen Street while the driver waits, that particular ritual ended today.
Causeway Link — the Johor operator, run by Handal Indah, that carries most of the bus traffic across the Causeway — announced in a Facebook post on 17 August 2026 that from 20 August it would stop accepting cash on board at two Singapore boarding points. Those two are the busiest ones in the city: Queen Street Bus Terminal in Bugis, where service CW2 leaves for JB CIQ, and Newton Circus, where service CW5 does the same.
What actually changed
Nothing about the routes, the timings or the fares. Only the moment of payment.
Before today you could hand the driver cash at Queen Street or Newton. From today you tap, and the driver has nothing to give change with. Everything else about the ride is the same: CW2 still runs 24 hours between Queen Street and JB CIQ, CW5 still runs from Newton Circus, and on cross-border routes you tap in only — there is no tap-out — but you must tap again each time you re-board after clearing immigration at Woodlands Checkpoint and JB CIQ.
What you can pay with now
- ManjaLink card — Causeway Link's own stored-value card, and the cheapest option.
- Contactless Visa or Mastercard — credit, debit or prepaid. The operator confirms the card inside Apple Pay or Google Pay works too.
- EZ-Link — accepted, but only at the Singapore boarding point. More on that trap below.
- LUGO app single-journey e-ticket — buy it in the app, scan the QR at the validator when you board.
Two rules from Causeway Link's own commuter guide that catch groups out. One card per person: sharing is not allowed, so a family of four taps four cards. And carry a spare card of a different brand — if your only Visa misreads at the door, a second Visa is not much of a backup.
If you only have cash
You can still travel. You just buy before you board, and the two stations do it differently:
- Queen Street Bus Terminal — there is a ManjaLink counter inside the terminal, listed on Manja's own counter map as open daily, 24 hours. Buy a ticket or a card there.
- Newton Circus — there is no counter at all on that map. The fallback is Causeway Link ground staff at the boarding point, who sell ManjaLink cards.
That asymmetry matters. Queen Street's counter is a fixed, round-the-clock facility. Newton's is a person, with unpublished hours. If you are heading to Newton late at night with only notes, have a card as well.
What a ManjaLink card costs
RM30.80 for a new card. That splits into a non-refundable card cost of RM10.80 and RM20 of stored travel credit. Five places sell them in Singapore, per Manja's own counter list:
| Where | Hours |
|---|---|
| Queen Street Bus Terminal | Daily, 24 hours |
| Jem — ground floor, beside Tipsy Bunny | Daily 5.00am – 12.00am |
| Jurong Point — JP1 Level 1 entrance, in front of City Hot Pot | Daily 6.30am – 12.00am |
| Kranji Mobile, Kranji MRT | Daily 7.00am – 10.00pm |
| HarbourFront Centre | Daily 9.00am – 9.00pm |
Top-ups go through the Manja website, the LUGO app, or a self-service kiosk. Because the card holds ringgit, a Singapore-dollar top-up is converted at the rate Manja publishes on its site — S$1 = RM3.19, updated 15 August 2026.
The fares, and the one case where the e-ticket costs more
Fares for Singapore-originating journeys are charged in Singapore dollars; Malaysia-originating journeys are charged in ringgit.
| From (Singapore) | Service | Adult | ManjaLink | LUGO single-journey | Concession |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen Street | CW2 | S$4.80 | S$4.75 | S$4.80 | S$2.40 |
| Newton Circus | CW5 | S$4.60 | S$4.55 | S$4.60 | S$2.30 |
| Woodlands Checkpoint | CW1 / CW2 / CW5 | S$2.00 | S$1.80 | S$2.60 | S$1.30 |
| Kranji MRT | CW1 | S$2.00 | S$1.98 | S$2.60 | S$1.30 |
Two things to read off that table. First, the much-quoted "cashless is cheaper" line is real but small on the long legs — five cents off a Queen Street fare. It only bites properly on the short Woodlands Checkpoint hop, where ManjaLink saves 20 cents on a S$2.00 fare. Second, the LUGO single-journey e-ticket is not always the cheap option: from Woodlands Checkpoint or Kranji it costs S$2.60 against S$2.00 on a card.
The date the viral posts are leaving out
Most of the reposts describe this as a trial at two stations, with other stops keeping cash "for now". True — but there is a date on it, and it is close.
Land Transport Guru's CW route pages state it plainly: cashless requirements are being implemented in phases, with cashless-only payment at Queen Street (CW2) and Newton Circus (CW5) from 20 August 2026, followed by wider implementation across all services from 1 October 2026. The same 1 October date appears on the CW1, CW4 and CW6 pages.
So the boarding points that still take cash today — Kranji MRT (CW1), Woodlands Checkpoint, Boon Lay MRT and Jurong East / Jurong Town Hall (CW3, CW4, CW4S, CW6, CW7), and Tuas — have roughly six weeks left. Causeway Link's own commuter page is titled "Cashless Transition 2026", not "Cashless Trial", and its advice is to get a card and test it *before* the cashless date reaches your stop.
The EZ-Link trap
This is the one that will actually strand people. EZ-Link is accepted only at the Singapore boarding points — Kranji MRT on CW1, Queen Street on CW2, Newton Circus on CW5. It is not on the accepted list for journeys originating in Malaysia.
Which means: an EZ-Link card gets you to Johor Bahru and cannot get you back on a CW bus. For the return leg you need a ManjaLink card, a contactless Visa or Mastercard, or a LUGO single-journey e-ticket bought before you head to the stop. And if you board at Larkin rather than JB CIQ, there is an extra RM2 facilities charge on top of the fare.
One more piece of stale guidance to ignore: ManjaLink's own FAQ still says that if your card balance is short you may simply pay the fare in cash when boarding. That page has not been updated. At Queen Street and Newton, from today, it is wrong.
If you get caught out at Queen Street
Queen Street Bus Terminal is not a single-operator station. SBS Transit service 170 and the Singapore-Johore Express also run to Johor from there, and both are separate operators with their own payment rules — so a cashless CW2 does not mean you are stuck at the terminal. Service 170 runs to Woodlands Checkpoint on the local network rather than direct to JB CIQ, and takes considerably longer, but it is there.
*Verified on 20 August 2026 against Causeway Link's and Manja's own websites, Manja's official counter list and Land Transport Guru's CW1/CW2/CW4/CW5/CW6 route pages, plus reporting of Causeway Link's 17 August 2026 Facebook announcement. Causeway Link's website carries no separate dated notice for this change, so the 20 August and 1 October dates come from its Facebook post and from Land Transport Guru. Fares, payment rules and counter hours change — confirm on Causeway Link's official channels before you travel.*
