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Transportation companies caught off guard as commuters pack stations
The failure of social-distancing measures among commuters has resulted in passenger chaos despite the President’s call to stay at home. Pictures disseminated on social media showed commuters — many wearing face masks — squeezing into packed buses and stations throughout the capital.
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Passengers line up at the entrance to Lebak Bulus MRT Station in Jakarta on Monday. (JP/Seto Wardhana)
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restriction on the operational hours of public transportation imposed by Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19 appears to have massively backfired, with large crowds and long lines building up at Transjakarta and MRT Jakarta stations across the capital on Monday.
The lines accumulated as commuters wearing face masks squeezed into packed bus stops and train stations during peak hours in the morning, with many commuters waiting for hours and becoming distressed at being late for work.
While some commuters appeared ignorant about the city’s containment efforts, many others had no option because they still had to go to work since their companies had yet to impose or had only imposed a partial work-from-home policy.
Aninda, a 27-year-old state-owned enterprise worker, said she was not able to stay at home because her company enforced a two-shift policy where each division was divided into two groups taking turns to work at the office and at home on a weekly basis.
“I’m currently living with my parents in Ciganjur [in South Jakarta] and I was planning to leave from the Ragunan bus stop. Arrived there at about 7 a.m., I saw people lined up for approximately 10 meters,” she said on Monday.
City transportation companies said such operational restrictions were in line with the instructions of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and an appeal from the World Health Organization to limit movement and maintain social distance in an effort to minimize the spread of the virus.
Anies previously announced the city would limit the operational frequency of public transportation for the next 14 days starting on Monday so that people with no urgent need to travel could remain at home.
