Jak of it: An official uses an integrated transport ticketing card for trans-Jakarta bus and trains during a simulation Wednesday at the Juanda railway station in Central Jakarta. The city administration is planning to launch a ticketing system called JakCard to integrate its busway and train ticket payments for commuters. JP/R. Berto Wedhatama
A prepaid electronic travel ticketing system, called JakCard, may become available this month for busway and train passengers.
“Bank DKI, BLU Transjakarta and PT KAI Commuter Jabodetabek are still developing the facility. We hope it will become available this month,” Jakarta Transportation Agency traffic management chief M.Akbar told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Bank DKI spokesman Romy Wijayanto said during the first phase the contactless card system (also known as a “smart card” system) would be ready at shelters on corridors 1, 2 and 6 of the Transjakarta network, at Indomaret retail stores and at four train stations.
Passengers will be able to use the cards to pay for travel on the busway, or for Pakuan Express train services between Bogor and Jakarta.
Romy said initially the JakCard facility would only be available at Bogor, Gambir, Juanda and Kota railway stations.
During the second phase, the system would be made available for corridors 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8.
“There will be no minimum limit [to credit] stored on the JakCard. The maximum limit is Rp 1 million [US$105], as ruled by Bank Indonesia,” he said in a statement.
PT KAI Commuter Jabodetabek corporate secretary Makmur Syaheran said his company would trial the system at four stations this month before expanding it to all train stations.
“The most important challenge for us is familiarizing passengers with the new system. This will take time,” he said.
The electronic ticketing facility would be adopted by five other banks to cater for a growing number of passengers, he said.
Makmur said the JakCard system had been tried earlier this week by Deputy Transportation Minister Bambang Susantono, who had caught a train from Gambir to Juanda, and then took the busway to Gambir.
On Wednesday, the Post found a number of new turnstile gates, most of which were still covered in cardboad, on the first floor of the Gambir station. The station also had new pedestrian access connected it with the nearby Transjakarta shelter.
Two red devices were also seen at ticket booths in busway shelters for Corridor 1 (Kota – Blok M) and Corridor 2 (Harmoni – Pulo Gadung).
Tryse, a ticketing officer at the Gambir II shelter, said she recently attended a workshop organized by Bank DKI on how to use the new system at busway shelters.
“JakCard users can check their credit using a card reader. When they want to take the bus, the ticket officer will push a button and the machine will display an instruction to ‘put card close to the reader’,” she said, adding that the account would be debited the bus fare amount.
After that passengers would be given a single-trip ticket.
Romy said the procedure was slightly different at train stations, where owners of JakCard could put their cards on an electronic reader machine at a turnstile gate and pass through directly.
On board, the conductors could verify passengers had paid using a separate device. At the destination station, passengers would validate their journey at another turnstile gate near the exit to the station, and the fare amount would deducted from their JakCard account.
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