City prepares new TransJakarta feeder system

In a bid to encourage more people to use public transportation, the Jakarta administration is preparing new feeder routes for its TransJakarta bus rapid transit system.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Udar Pristono said Thursday there was increased demand from TransJakarta passengers for more feeder routes and that the currently operating feeder routes were not working optimally. “We want the new feeder system to connect with existing TransJakarta routes and shelters,” Pristono said.

The plan, he said, was to operate three feeder routes connecting areas in West Jakarta with TransJakarta’s corridor III, and Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat and the Sudirman Central Business District with Corridor I.

There are currently three feeder routes connecting corridor I with Bintaro, the BSD suburb in Tangerang and the Citra Indah suburb in Bogor.

The agency plans to hold a tender for the routes in early 2011 and expects the new feeder system to operate by the end of 2011 or early 2012.

TransJakarta operates eight routes. Corridor I runs from Blok M to Kota, corridor II from Pulogadung to Harmoni, corridor III from Kalideres to Harmoni, corridor IV from Pulogadung to Dukuh Atas, corridor V from Kampung Melayu to Ancol, corridor VI from Ragunan to Kuningan, corridor VII from Kampung Melayu to Kampung Rambutan and corridor VIII Lebak Bulus to Harmoni,

Two planned routes, corridor IX running from Pinang Ranti to Pluit and corridor X from Cililitan to Tanjung Priok, are expected to start operating on December 31.

Buses for the new routes were run for a trial Thursday. Despite the prepared infrastructure, the two routes have been idle for months, leaving some shelters to be vandalized, while concrete lane dividers are showing cracks in many sections. Pristono said the agency was working to repair the shelters and vowed they would be ready for operation next week. The city allocated Rp 4.7 billion (US$5.2 million) to repair the shelters.

A survey by the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) of 3,000 TransJakarta passengers showed more than half of the respondents believed the system provided a good service. “But at the same time, 81 percent of respondents complain of long queues at shelters, overcrowded buses and slow trips,” YLKI official Tulus Abadi said.

The YLKI said more than 152,000 people used TransJakarta buses each day, and that most of them considered the current ticket price of Rp 3,500 as ideal.

“With such trust from the public, the city administration should have made more efforts to improve public transportation, which in turn would reduce the use of private vehicles.”