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Jakarta Post

Transjakarta dreams big for 2020

After recording 1 million passengers per day for the first time this year, city-owned bus operator Transjakarta is dreaming big in 2020 with a vision of doubling the figure

Nina A. Loasana (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Wed, February 19, 2020

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Transjakarta dreams big for 2020

After recording 1 million passengers per day for the first time this year, city-owned bus operator Transjakarta is dreaming big in 2020 with a vision of doubling the figure. 

The company’s acting president director, Yoga Adiwinarto, expressed his optimism that the country’s first bus rapid transit (BRT) service could unlock even more achievements this year.

“Yes, it took us 16 years to transport 1 million passengers a day, but we’re confident that we can reach 2 million in a year,” Yoga told The Jakarta Post in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

Transjakarta reached the daily 1 million passenger mark on Feb. 5, 16 years after the service was introduced to the capital’s streets in January 2004. At the time, it was the first BRT system in Southeast and South Asia.

Yoga said he remained optimistic that the ambitious target was feasible this year with network expansion. 

“One important lesson we learned in 2019 was that expanding our networks, especially to smaller roads in the capital city’s suburbs, increased the number of passengers significantly,” he said.

Yoga explained that last year, about 18 percent of Transjakarta’s passengers came from its 1,723 microbuses, commonly called angkot (public minivans), under the city’s one-fare public transportation scheme dubbed Jak Lingko.

The microbuses act as the first-and last-mile public transportation provider for the company and feeders for the Transjakarta networks. On average, the fleet serves 257,981 customers per day or about 47.6 million passengers a year.

“In 2019, we converted 900 privately owned public minivans under our wing. Since last July, we’ve exceeded our monthly passenger target and we saw a 329 percent rise in our Jak Lingko angkot passengers from January 2019 to January 2020, so it’s very significant,” he said.

This year, the company plans to convert about 500 public minivans under the Jak Lingko scheme and expand its routes from 247 lines to 285.

Yoga said Transjakarta aimed to make microbus services the main priority in 2020 and 2021 to cater to greater service potential.

“The main problem in the suburbs area is small roads, which are often not well connected to one another, so the angkot service is the ideal solution for the problem,” he said.

He claimed that the Jak Lingko angkot service was more attractive to passengers compared to privately owned public minivans because the drivers did not stop in one area to wait for passengers to fill their cars like common angkot in an infamous practice called ngetem. Passengers also do not have to pay a dime to ride the city-subsidized service.

Besides aiming to serve 2 million passengers per day this year, Yoga said the company also wanted to increase the number of passengers by 32 percent from 264 million per year to 321 million. It also aims to increase the size of its fleet by 19 percent from 3,865 to 4,300 vehicles.

“We also want to decrease the ticket subsidy by 10 percent without increasing ticket fares. Our goal is to gradually reduce the amount of money given by the city administration for Transjakarta operations,” he said.

The city administration currently spends Rp 3.2 trillion (US$248 million) every year for Transjakarta operations.

“Actually, our annual operational cost is around Rp 3.6 trillion, but we try to cover the expenses from our non-farebox income like advertising. We’re trying to increase our non-farebox income, it’s a good business model so we’re trying to improve it,” Yoga said.

Transjakarta also aims to make its business more environmentally friendly by operating electric buses. The firm plans to launch a trial program for five electric buses this year.

Yoga said the company was set on improving customer satisfaction this year by operating about 100 air-conditioned angkot and providing about 100 e-money vending machines at its bus stops so customers could top up their e-money cards easily without hustling to find the nearest ATM. 

Alvinsyah, a transportation expert from the University of Indonesia, said Transjakarta should try to break the record of 2 million passengers a day by increasing attractive factors to lure more people.

“The issue is not about feasibility anymore but it should try to achieve the goal by all means like by expanding their networks and integrating their service with other modes of transportation,” he told the Post on Friday.

He also said the city administration should take an active role to push Jakartans to use public transportation by creating policies that would deter the use of private vehicles, like increasing parking fees and expanding the odd-even license plate traffic control policy.

Dimas, a 30-year-old man from West Jakarta who regularly rides Transjakarta buses, said he wished that the city-owned bus operator improved its services by increasing its fleet and reducing travel time.

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