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Govt to allocate more money for land transportation
The Transportation Ministry plans to focus on public land transportation and infrastructure such as bus terminals across the country next year after recent data showed an increasing need
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span>The Transportation Ministry plans to focus on public land transportation and infrastructure such as bus terminals across the country next year after recent data showed an increasing need.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Semadi in Jakarta on Thursday said that the ministry would propose additional funding for next year for the improvement of public transportation facilities like bus terminals and buses.
If approved, the budget would be used to repair hundreds of bus terminals and procure new public buses in a number of areas such as Brebes regency in Central Java, he said following a hearing with the House of Representatives.
Budi said he would recommend the Finance Ministry reduce taxes and provide incentives for bus operators, encouraging more operations for small-scale bus owners who only serve limited routes.
“If we can improve the buses, terminals and their reservation systems, people will be encouraged to switch [from private vehicles] and invest in public ones,” Budi said.
For trains, he said that he would use the budget to support infrastructure development while pushing state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia to enhance its current rolling stocks.
The ministry could also potentially connect more cities to their recently finished double-track railway system. The multi-trillion-rupiah doubled tracks currently pass through West Java’s Cirebon, Semarang, Surakarta, Surabaya and Jakarta.
One reason to prioritize train development, he added, is that the mode has enjoyed a steady growth in passengers.
He referred to PT Kereta Api Indonesia’s recent reports that indicated a 10 percent growth to 4.82 million passengers during this year’s Idul Fitri holidays, higher than the 4.38 million people it carried in 2018. He expressed hope that the numbers would climb 20 percent within the next three years.
However, the move to invigorate land transportation systems had already been evident in Java, with projects like the Jakarta-Bandung high speed railway, Jakarta’s new MRT network and electric buses and taxis in various cities.
Other provinces have started to follow suit, including with the operation of an LRT system in Palembang, South Sumatra last year. Two years ago, West Kalimantan’s capital city of Pontianak also commenced the trial of a bus rapid transit system in a bid to serve the city’s students.
Yet, land transportation has slowly declined in some other regions. The Sarbagita public bus in Bali, for instance, was previously suspended for several months because of a low number of passengers. It only made a comeback last month as an airport shuttle service.
As a result, Soegijapranata Catholic University and Indonesian Transportation Society transportation expert Djoko Setijowarno argued that the government should immediately start accelerating land transportation development, especially in regions outside Java.
To enforce the government’s commitment, the ministry is to provide 3,000 buses in 33 provinces across Indonesia in its strategic planning between 2014 and 2019. He explained that every province should ideally have at least one well-run transportation system.
Bus operators should also follow in the footsteps of train services, which he claimed to have similar standards in its economy and executive wagons. However, even train systems still have many inactive railway tracks, which he suggests they should use instead of adding new ones.
Consequently, the current substandard land transportation systems in some regions have made online taxis a preferred choice for daily commuting. Some regional authorities have even treated the mode as public transportation system despite that they worsen the already heavy traffic in bigger cities, Djoko added.
“So increasing road capacity and facilities will be meaningless in the long run,” Djoko said, referring to the existing road congestions in Java despite having a trans-Java toll road during the Lebaran holiday exodus.
“Instead, adequate public transportation will steer away people from their private vehicles, especially if the [government] starts to increase the price of fuels and toll roads.”
