Dharshini Raj
3 hours ago
The 50% toll discount for Deepavali runs for 48 hours, from midnight on Friday 6 November 2026 until 11.59pm on Saturday 7 November, on Class 1 private cars on all highways nationwide. Penang Bridge also covers Class 2, and the government has set aside about RM20.11 million to compensate the concessionaires. The two border plazas, Bangunan Sultan Iskandar on the North-South Expressway and Tanjung Kupang on the Second Link, are excluded, so anyone crossing to Singapore pays the usual rate. That puts the whole balik kampung run inside a window everyone can see, two days before Deepavali on Sunday 8 November. The discount does not create a lane, and the stretch past Gombak has the same three lanes it had last year. So which is the saner plan: leave after midnight on Friday, drive through the dark and reach Tapah before the sun is up, or leave early Saturday morning and accept that half the country had the same thought? I have done the midnight run before and the road was empty until the first R&R, then it bunched up again for the next hundred kilometres. For those who have used these festive discounts in past years, does the reduction come off at the plaza or does it only appear on the statement days later? I would rather know what I am actually paying at the barrier than find out afterwards.
Replies (6)
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Did the midnight run twice for Raya and it is not the jam you avoid, it is the fatigue. By Tapah I was the only one awake in the car and the others were no help with the signs.
Half price at the barrier is nice but it will not widen the slope before Gombak. If you are heading north, the crawl starts a good twenty minutes before you even see the plaza.
Remember Tanjung Kupang is excluded, so if the trip ends in Singapore the discount does nothing for that stretch. Worth knowing before you plan the timing around it.
Take the earlier exit and use the trunk road for the last stretch. My father has done that every Deepavali and we usually reach the house ahead of the cousins who stayed on the highway.
Reload the TnG and the wallet before you set off. Half the delay at the plaza is someone in front digging for a card with four ringgit left on it.
In my experience it is deducted at the plaza itself, nothing to claim afterwards. What cost me time was the R&R queue, not the barrier, so plan the fuel stop outside the usual hours.