Bus drivers, passengers complain about route change along busway line
Bus drivers, passengers complain about route change along busway line
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Getting out of an air-conditioned bus in the center of the city
in Karet on Wednesday, Imas Masitoh, 35, thought she was lost.
She looked around, trying to find someone who could tell her
how to continue her trip to her workplace in the Glodok
commercial district, about four kilometers away.
"I had been informed that I should take the busway from Karet
to Kota. But I was still confused because I'd never taken the
busway before. What was worse was that I had to spend more money
to get there," said Imas, a resident of Lenteng Agung in South
Jakarta.
She usually takes a PPD bus No. 15 from her house that drives
between Depok and Kota, stopping in Glodok. However, starting
Tuesday the bus now stops only in Karet.
The City Transportation Agency has changed 12 other city bus
routes to connect them with the busway corridor from Blok M to
Kota to cut down on bus traffic in the central city.
Many buses, which previously headed to Kota from areas in
Greater Jakarta now only travel to Karet and surrounding areas.
Dozens of other passengers were similarly confused, quizzing
police officers, transportation agency officials and bus station
staff about the changes.
Surya, a Bekasi resident who commutes every day to a private
company in Central Jakarta, said he was particularly concerned
about the increase in transportation costs. He calculated he
would have to spend at least Rp 5,000 more (some 50 US cents) a
day to use the busway, an increase of a third.
And complaints did not only come from the commuters. Dozens of
PPD drivers gathered under the Karet overpass on Jl. Sudirman on
Wednesday to protest the new routes that they said had reduced
their daily incomes by up to 70 percent.
"This morning I took only seven passengers from Bekasi to
Senayan, while from Jakarta to Bekasi I took only one. I ended up
returning the bus to the depot, " said a PPD driver serving
Bekasi to Senayan, whose old route was Bekasi to Kota.
"No new passengers get on our buses because they're still not
familiar with the changes," another driver said.
After a heat debated with transportation agency officials who
would not agree to allow them to return to their old routes, the
drivers ignored the order and continued their trips to Kota,
instead of turning off on Jl. Supomo in Karet.
City Transportation Agency head Rustam Effendy Sidabutar, who
made a visit to Karet, called on all bus operators to abide by
the new routes.
"If they ignore our warnings, we will shut down their
operations and replace (the buses) with trucks owned by the city
police," Rustam said. Any revisions to the new route would only
be possible after its implementation was evaluated.
He stressed the new routes were the results of negotiations
between the agency and representatives of city bus operators.