A week before the country’s first MRT network is to start commercial operations, the Jakarta administration and the City Council have yet to see eye to eye on fares and subsidies, despite an announcement that the council had approved set fares.

In a meeting on Monday, the councilors had decided to charge passengers Rp 8,500 (60 US cents) per every 10 kilometers traveled on the MRT Jakarta and Rp 5,000 for the LRT Jakarta.

The fares are cheaper than what the city administration had previously proposed: Rp 10,000 per 10 km for the 15.7-km MRT service connecting Lebak Bulus in South Jakarta to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta and a fixed fare of Rp 6,000 for the 5.8-km LRT line that runs from Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta to the Velodrome in East Jakarta.

Under the proposed fare, MRT passengers would have had to pay Rp 3,000 per ride from one station to the next and the fare would go up by Rp 1,000 per station. The maximum MRT fare that passengers would have been charged was Rp 14,000.

“We are taking the middle road: Rp 8,500 for the MRT and Rp 5,000 for the LRT. Everybody agree?” council speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi said.

The fare is to be charged to passengers starting on April 1 when the MRT begins commercial operations.

Edi argued that both of the fares were appropriate to facilitate public use of the services. He also said the decisions were made in a bid to encourage people to use the MRT instead of their private vehicles.

The city councilors previously questioned the hefty budget needed to subsidize the MRT and LRT under the proposed fares as the city had calculated that it needed subsidies of Rp 572 billion for the MRT and Rp 327 billion for the LRT this year.

Prasetio said the administration to recalculate the MRT fare scheme and the budget needed for the subsidies with the approved fare. The councilors agreed to discuss the subsidies in a follow-up meeting after the city administration made its final calculations.

The fare seemed to baffle city secretary Saefullah, who was at the meeting representing the city administration. He said the administration would at a later time further discuss the fare with the councilors. “We all want decisions to be made with logic and proper calculations. We are hoping for room to communicate between executives and legislators for us to determine the best fare,” he said.

The city administration insisted that the initial fare proposed was to ensure the business sustainability of the city-owned companies operating the services, PT MRT Jakarta and PT Jakarta Propertindo.

“We want an affordable fare for the public but also one feasible for the city-owned companies. There are many things the companies need to maintain, such as the trains and the facilities,” Saefullah added.

Crowds still gathered on Monday at the MRT stations, although they were not as packed as during Sunday’s inauguration, filled mostly by families trying to get their MRT experience. Commuters started to use the service on Monday to get to their offices in South and Central Jakarta.

Defa Ramdan, 29, a commuter who works in Kebon Sirih in Central Jakarta, told The Jakarta Post that he waited for Monday to try to take the MRT to work.

“It was crowded inside the train, but the stations are roomy, unlike in the pictures I saw in social media on Sunday. I didn’t find people eating at the station. Passengers stood neatly on the left side of the escalator to let the others walk on the right side,” the Lebak Bulus resident said.

MRT Jakarta president director William Sabandar said during the meeting with councilors that to boost passengers’ convenience and ridership, the company would focus on integration, as well as on supporting facilities.

He said the MRT would complement Transjakarta bus stops, park-and-ride facilities and transit plazas (pick-up and drop-off points) for ride-hailing app drivers.

Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan visited the Transjakarta bus stop at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle and hoped the integration takes place everywhere. (ggq)

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