The decision was reached after an evaluation of the first month of the MRT’s commercial operation starting in April, during which the MRT saw 82,615 passengers daily and a train punctuality rate of 99.8 percent, according to MRT Jakarta president director William Sabandar.

“We decided to begin normal operation of the 16 trains starting May 1, after when they will run from 5 a.m. to 12 a.m.,” William told reporters.

The shorter headway would only be in effect from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays. During peak hours up to 14 trains would be used, while during regular hours only seven of them would be, the company’s operational director Muhammad Effendi said.

“To make sure the MRT is ready for the five-minute headway we have conducted eight trials from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. to make sure there are no obstacles,” Effendi said.

Also starting on May 1 was the operation of designated women-only passenger cars during the same rush hours.

The women-only car is provided at the center of each MRT train. On the car’s door a pink sticker reads “women-only car”, kompas.com reported.

The MRT machinists, along with the station staffers, will also be given additional training to prepare them for the five-minute headway and for using two machinists in one train during peak hours.

Initially, the MRT Jakarta targeted 65,000 passengers daily.

Data from April 2 to 28 show that Jakartans are flocking to use the MRT, with the lowest usage on April 4 with 62,352 passengers, and the highest on April 13 with 116,074 passengers.

“From April 13 it [the number of passengers] kept moving upward,” William said.

The data also show that during weekends, the total number of passengers increased by 11 percent compared to on weekdays.

William said passengers on weekdays and those on weekends were different, as on weekdays 80 percent of the passengers were daily commuters and 20 percent were visitors, while on weekends 70 percent were visitors and only 30 percent were commuters.

William said MRT Jakarta could not seek to convert the visitors to become regular users, rather it would try to keep up with the daily commuters in the MRT.

“We cannot convert them, the visitors can come from the outskirts [of Jakarta] so we will [focus on] managing those daily commuters,” William said.

He said there were two kinds of customers, those who cared more about cheap fares and those who cared more about the service.

“For those who care about punctuality, we address them by [shortening] the headway. For those who care about fares, we are still studying them,” William said.

He said the MRT would need to be supported by other facilities, such as integration with other modes of transportation, so commuters would accept the current fare even without the promotional 50 percent discount currently in effect.

As many MRT passengers used the service because of its 50 percent discount, MRT Jakarta plans to extend the discounted price to persuade more people to use the MRT while convincing those already using it to continue doing so.

William said MRT Jakarta had proposed the matter to the Jakarta administration, while working to reach a target of 100,000 daily passengers.

The Jakarta administration has decided to extend the discount until May 12.

People can travel on the rapid transit service, which employs a cashless fare payment system, using a single-trip MRT Jakarta card or the Jak Lingko card. Other accepted payment forms are electronic cash cards issued by state-owned lenders Mandiri (e-money), BRI (brizzi), and BNI (tap cash), as well as those issued by private lender BCA (flazz) and city-owned lender DKI (Jakarta One).

The fare is kilometer-based with an average cost of Rp 8,500 (60 US cents). The cheapest fare is Rp 3,000 between the closest two stations, and up to Rp 14,000 to travel from Lebak Bulus Station to Bundaran HI Station.

MRT Jakarta has also dismissed concerns that it will negatively impact the city’s Transjakarta service, especially Corridor 1 from Blok M to Kota.

Transjakarta president director Agung Wicaksono said their passengers even increased alongside the MRT’s.

Transjakarta data show that from Jan. 1 to March 11 it served daily passengers of 73,761 on Corridor 1. And from March 13 to April 25, when the MRT started its operation, the corridor served an average of 78,010 passengers each day.

“They used to be viewed as overlapping each other, but it turned out that [Transjakarta’s ridership] increased alongside the MRT’s commercial operation,” Agung said.

Transjakarta has also started running nine new routes to serves as feeders to the MRT.

The presence of the MRT has also reinvigorated the Blok M area, which was previously suffering from a decline in visitor numbers.

Stefanus Ridwan, the president director of PT Pakuwon Jati Tbk, which manages the area, claimed that visitor numbers increased by up to 150 percent after the MRT opened, kompas.com reported.

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