The buses currently connect Serpong, a residential area in the city, with Lebak Bulus MRT station in South Jakarta and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in neighboring Cengkareng, Tangerang.

The Greater Jakarta Transportation Agency (BPTJ) launched the service in June and is looking to expand the service. The BPTJ runs Transjabodetabek with buses provided by state-run bus company Jakarta Passenger Transportation PPD.

Dhedie Rasmana Putra, field coordinator of Transjabodetabek's premium JR and JA Connexion bus services, said the agency had run trials since last month on new routes.

The expanded routes connect Summarecon Digital Center in Gading Serpong to Kuningan in South Jakarta via the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR) to Jl. Pangeran Antasari and Jl. Sudirman before heading to Jl. HR Rasuna Said.

Kuningan is one of the four planned routes that will connect Gading Serpong to several parts of Jakarta, including the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle. The BPTJ is still in discussion about the exact destinations, he said.

Serpong is deemed a strategic stationing point in South Tangerang as it is the location of many residential areas, schools, universities and private companies.

Transjabodetabek aims to attract a high number of passengers to the bus service, Dhedie said.

“We want to facilitate an affordable mode of transportation for people living in the areas surrounding Jakarta. Customer demand for reliable transportation that will take them to Jakarta is quite high,” he said recently.

Dhedie expressed the hope that the Transjabodetabek route expansion would motivate people living in Serpong and other areas nearby to use public transportation instead of using private vehicles.

Besides bus services, commuters living in South Tangerang also rely on the commuter rail line to help them commute to their work in Jakarta.

Yongki, 54, an entrepreneur who is working on a project on Jl. Fatmawati in South Jakarta said he had been an avid user of the Transjabodetabek bus ever since it started operating.

“It comes out as cheaper than other alternatives I have used to reach Fatmawati,” he said adding that he used to drive his own car or order online-based taxis to travel to work.

Aside from the facilities and value of Transjabodetabek, Yongki also cited time-efficiency as an advantage of taking the bus.

“I used to drive. It takes much more effort and now there is the odd-even traffic policy. But now I don’t have to feel worn out anymore,” he said.

However, Yongki urged the operator to improve the scheduling of the Transjabodetabek service and to put the schedule online so passengers like him would know the exact travel times for the service.

He also expected the service to lay on more journeys and routes to provide a better service for commuters living in South Tangerang.

Another passenger, Nissi, 20, a student at a local college in Tangerang also said that the bus was handy and cheap.

“Even if it takes longer to get to the destination, you can get to Lebak Bulus MRT station for only Rp 10,000 [71 US cents]. And it’s clean and comfortable,” she said.

Nissi compared the fare to that of the commuter rail service, which although cheaper at Rp 3,000 she had to spend more money on an online motorcycle taxi to get to and from the stations.

“Although the commuter line runs a lot of trains, meanwhile the bus only comes by once every 40 minutes,” she said.

Besides South Tangerang, Transjabodetabek also serves routes to other Jakarta satellite cities, namely Tangerang, also in Banten, and Bogor and Bekasi in West Java.

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post

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