T

he city administration began to merge all its bus terminals and train stations into an integrated transportation system in an effort to attract more people and commuters to switch to public transportation.

Jakarta Transportation Agency head Udar Pristono said on Wednesday that the city was now trying to revamp its public transportation system, including integrating some schemes to ease commuters reaching their destinations.

'€œWe have done several things like providing feeder buses to transport commuters from satellite cities to continue their journey with Transjakarta buses,'€ he said.

The agency planned to provide 19 feeder bus routes connecting Depok, Bogor and Bekasi in West Java and Tangerang in Banten to the city'€™s commercial areas such as Blok M in South Jakarta, Grogol in West Jakarta and Senen in Central Jakarta.

'€œWe are now operating seven of them,'€ he said in a discussion on integrated transportation held by the Associate of Indonesian Architects.

Udar said the city would also allow minibuses to use Transjakarta dedicated lanes if the buses had been revitalized.

The administration will buy 1,000 new minibuses to replace existing ill-maintained minibuses.

Udar said besides providing the buses, the agency was also planning to revitalize all main bus stations in the city to accommodate various transportation modes.

Its first project would be Pulo Gadung terminal in East Jakarta, he added. '€œWe are now planning the details and the engineering design of the stations and will start construction in 2014,'€ he said.

Udar said the new terminals would be at least two-stories, the first floor would be dedicated to passengers passing from one bus to another, and the second one for the buses.

'€œThe terminal will be integrated with toll roads and equipped with a park and ride facility, so commuters from Bekasi, for example, do not need to drive their cars to the city,'€ he said.

Udar said Manggarai in South Jakarta and Kota in West Jakarta that had terminals adjacent to train stations would also be the priority of the revitalization.

Udar said besides connecting bus and train stations, the new transportation modes '€” Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and the Monorail '€” that would be built soon will also be integrated with other transportation modes.

The development division head of city-owned PT Mass Rapid Transit Jakarta, Iwan Prijanto, said public transportation will be able to replace the facilities given by private vehicles.

'€œPublic transportation must replace the door-to-door service provided by private vehicles,'€ he said.

Iwan said in order to create door-to-door transportation, the city needed a combination of mass rapid transits and transit oriented development for the areas.

He said it was important to create pedestrian-friendly areas around public transportation stations and easy access to encourage people to use them.

'€œWe also have to provide feeder vehicles like buses or even bicycles for commuters to easily move from one public transport mode to another,'€ he said.

Indonesian Transportation Society'€™s (MTI) Jakarta branch head, Tri Tjahjono, echoed the statement, saying that it was the spatial planning agency'€™s homework to create easy access for commuters to change from one transportation mode to another.

Tri said it was useless to have good public transportation if people could not access it easily from their houses or offices.

He said there were five things that should be taken into account in integrating the transportation system.

The five things comprise a huge number of trips, a short-distance journey, an efficient transportation mode, efficient use of energy, and smooth traffic.