THE Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) bus station at Bandar Tasik Selatan, which saw chaotic crowds last night, has returned to normal today with hardly any lines at ticketing counters this afternoon.

The 10 additional ticketing counters that were opened to accommodate the last minute exodus last night, were also closed today.

UITM music student Ahmad Adli Mohd Nur, 19 from Pontian, Johor said he is relieved to find that there are not many people at the bus terminal.

“We wanted to come yesterday, but when we heard there were too many people, we decided not to,” he said when met at TBS.

The chaos last night followed Putrajaya’s movement control order announced on Monday, banning gatherings, closing schools, universities, and non-essential businesses and offices, and interstate travel for the next two weeks starting today until March 31 to curb the Covid-19 outbreak.

People started queuing to buy tickets as early as 2pm yesterday, trying to beat the rush back to their hometowns as offices, colleges and universities closed for the 14-day nationwide pause.

The rush was caused by two announcements under the order that sparked the panic to quickly secure bus or train tickets.

Firstly, students at public and private universities were told in the first FAQ on the order issued by the National Security Council yesterday that they had to leave their campus accommodation.

A revised FAQ later the same day said students had the choice of staying on campus, but still subject to the movement control order stipulations.

By that time, many had left their campuses and were trying to get tickets to return to their home states before the movement control order began at midnight.

Compounding the chaos was the inspector-general of police’s (IGP) announcement yesterday that all interstate travel had to obtain police permission by filling up a form at the nearest police station.

This resulted in long queues at police stations in many places till late into the night. The IGP then withdrew the interstate travel declaration order.

However, the situation today is much calmer as many people have easy access to the ticketing counters.

UiTM industrial design student Muhamad Zaid Iqmal Abdul Razif, 20 said he felt unsafe about coming to the bus hub yesterday because of the crowds.

“I was afraid I could get infected with the large crowds here.” – March 18, 2020.