Private buses refusing to pay the increased toll at the Johor Bahru Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) centre this morning wreaked havoc on the causeway traffic this morning.
 
According to Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao, 'bas kilang' ferrying workers to Singapore daily "went on strike" at 5am when told to pay the new rate at a 470 per cent increase.
 
Their refusal to budge caused a massive traffic jam right across to the Singapore checkpoint.
 
"We are outside of CIQ with bas kilang drivers who refused to pay the new toll. They caused a massive jam since 5am.

"Customs and police (officers) told them to either enter or leave, but promised to announce a decision on the new toll in a week's time.
 
"The bas kilang drivers promised a huge protest a week later if the decision/announcement is not acceptable," posted Johor PKR leader Steven Choong on his Facebook this morning.
 
The traffic situation reportedly eased at around 8am.

Malaysian authorities, meanwhile, confirmed to Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reporter Sumisha Naidu  who later tweeted in the morning that the strike ended about 8am, but they were uncertain about what had sparked the protest.

"Malaysian works minister says waiting for confirmation on what bus strikes at Causeway on day of toll hikes really about," Sumisha tweeted.

There have been several proposals to hike various fees for vehicles going to and fro on the Singapore-Johor causeway, due to soaring traffic.

However, CNA reports that the bus drivers were apparently unhappy over the more than 400 percent jump in toll charges at the CIQ that came into effect today.

Announced by the Malaysian Highway Authority (MHA) last week, the new toll charges for vehicles heading into Singapore are RM6.80, RM10.20, RM13.60, RM3.40 and RM5.50 for Class 1 to Class 5 vehicles, respectively. Only motorcyclists are exempted.

CNA said Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA)  also sent out an advisory at 8.05am saying that bus services 160, 170, 170X and 950 - which regularly ply the causeway -  have cut their services to Johor Bahru until further notice.

The suspension was due to a “protest against increase in Malaysian toll fees by Malaysian bus operators which impeded flow of bus traffic through the Johor Bahru Checkpoint,” the advisory said.

Partial services, however resumed, about an hour later.

DAP Johor opposition leader Dr Boo Cheng Hau had also urged the government to hold off the toll hike implementation.

MHA noted that  hike was to pay for the construction of facilities at the Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) expressway, a project undertaken by government-linked Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB).

Boo argued instead that Plus should takeover the EDL from MRCB and open it for road users without any charge, since the EDL was an extension which links the CIQ with the Plus-operated North-South Expressway (NSE).

Singapore sparked off higher toll rates when on July 1, the LTA announced that it was also raising the vehicle entry permit and goods vehicle permit fees for foreign-registered vehicles coming into the city state, from Aug 1.