Transjakarta celebrates its fifth birthday Thursday, while passengers remain frustrated with the lack of comfort on board the buses and the problem of interconnectivity.

A busway passenger, Ivan S, who works as an accountant at a public auditing company in Semanggi, Central Jakarta, bemoaned overcrowded buses and shelters, and complained about reckless busway drivers.

“The [Atma Jaya] bus shelter gets unbearably crowded during peak hour, raising my concern about pickpockets,” he said.

Ivan suggested Transjakarta add more buses.

“With more buses, there will be more seats and space available for passengers,” Ivan said.

“And with that, there will be less people gathering in the shelters, reducing the threat of pickpockets,” Ivan said.

The have been several incidents of theft reported both inside shelters and on buses. Reports of sexual harassment have also been recorded.

“Drivers like to brake abruptly and make sharp turns. When they do, my body gets slammed from left to right against other passengers,” Ivan said.

Eliani Gunadi, another passenger, said she was worried about her safety once when a busway driver was talking on her cell phone.

“The driver read some text messages and decided to have a chat. I was worried about he ability to multitask,” Eliani said.

“I got off at Senen bus shelter only to take a bus with a driver that thought she was queen of the road. She drove so fast and honked her horn at every opportunity.”

Many other busways shelters throughout the city a brimming with people during rush hour.

“During rush hour, a huge number of people queue to get on the bus. I usually have to wait an hour for a bus, or 30 minutes if I am lucky,” said Anna R. Nawawi, another passenger.

Busway passengers off-loading at Manggarai, South Jakarta, to catch a train have to battle 400 meters uphill.

“Manggarai Station is at least 400 meters from the busway shelter. This is a tad too far for me, not to mention that the walk is uphill,” said Dudung, a busway pasenger, while making the 400-meter journey.

Dudung, 56, said walking such a distance uphill was very exhausting for someone his age.

“If I still have energy left, I prefer walking of course. But sometimes, I just want to get there fast, so I take an ojek (motorcycle taxi) which costs me Rp 5,000 (44 US cents),” he said.

Dudung said he hoped there would be a central public transportation interchange in the future to improve the busway service.

Head of the city transportation agency M. Tauchid said improvements to interconnectivity, comfort and efficiency was already on the administration’s agenda.

“We will also open three new busway corridors to improve the service in 2009 — corridors 8, 9 and 10,” he said.

Corridor 8 will serve the route Lebakbulus in South Jakarta to Harmoni in Central Jakarta; Corridor 9 will serve Pinangranti in East Jakarta to Pluit in North Jakarta; and Corridor 10 will serve Cililitan in East Jakarta to Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta.

Transjakarta busway was launched Jan. 15, 2004 to provide Jakartans with affordable yet efficient public transportation. To use the service, passengers need to pay Rp 3,500 for a continuous ticket.

The then governor Sutiyoso said he wanted car users to switch to Transjakarta. (hdt)

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