W

ith the upcoming implementation of e-ticketing for Transjakarta buses in August, passengers who take feeder or integrated bus services will have to pay additional fares.

Passengers will have to pay for e-tickets to board a Transjakarta bus and will then be required to pay further fares if they take either feeder buses or integrated public buses that also use Transjakarta busway lanes.

Currently, by purchasing a Rp 3,500 (30 US cents) Transjakarta ticket, passengers have access to bus feeder services such as the Integrated Bus Network (APTB), the Integrated City Busway (BKTB), Kopaja minibuses and Kopami minibuses.

However, as of Aug. 1, passengers taking feeder or integrated public buses must pay additional fares.

The new policy was decided in a joint meeting between the Transjakarta Management Unit, PT Transjakarta, the Transportation Agency and Transjakarta'€™s integrated and feeder bus operators on Friday.

Yoga Adiwinarto, the director of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), said the policy would require passengers to pay more and could affect Transjakarta'€™s integrated and feeder public bus business.

'€œLet'€™s say if a passenger wants to take an air-conditioned Kopaja from a Transjakarta bus stop, he will have to pay Rp 3,500 for the Transjakarta ticket and then Rp 5,000 for the air-conditioned Kopaja,'€ he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

'€œIf passengers have to pay twice like this, the air-conditioned Kopajas and the APTB will lose passengers,'€ he said.

PT Transjakarta president director Antonius Kosasih said during the meeting that the Transjakarta Management Unit had also decided that paper tickets would no longer be sold to Transjakarta passengers and would be replaced with electronic tickets that had been produced by the city administration in cooperation with state- and city-owned banks.

'€œThe e-ticketing system will be applied from Aug. 18 in every bus stop in Corridor 1. We will apply it to other corridors gradually,'€ said Antonius on Saturday.

Antonius believed the new system would facilitate ticket purchases for passengers.

'€œWe will cooperate with Transjakarta management and the bus operators to raise public awareness of the new system,'€ he said.

Antonius had previously said that before pushing all passengers to use e-tickets, the company would first revamp the system, especially making sure that passengers would not have difficulties topping up credit on their cards.

He added that the company was aiming for every ticket counter at bus stops to provide top-ups for e-tickets.

'€œAs many as six banks cooperating with us have committed to providing top-up facilities at every station,'€ he said. (idb)