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.