Bus owners mulling busway feeder services
Tony Hotland and Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Nine days before the kickoff of the busway project, the city administration is optimistic that the feeder buses will be ready on time, although the Jakarta Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) has yet to take a decision on the issue.
"The feeder buses will be ready by the launch of the busway. They're all set up and prepared," said the busway project team head, Irzal Djamal, on Tuesday.
Head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency Rustam Effendy seconded Irzal's statement but said that the legal agreement made between Organda and the administration "is being taken care of by Pak Irzal".
His statement contradicts that of Organda secretary Leo Bauti, who claimed that there was no clarity from the transportation agency on the implementation of feeder buses.
"We're basically ready to provide feeder buses but the problem lies in the hands of the regulator," he told The Jakarta Post, declining to elaborate.
Organda will have a "very important" meeting on Wednesday to discuss its further involvement in providing the feeder buses.
The administration would use the currently non-air-conditioned buses for the feeder services.
The feeder buses will transport commuters to the busway corridor from Blok M, South Jakarta, to Kota, West Jakarta, on 16 routes. Feeder bus tickets will be sold inside the buses at two prices: Rp 2,900 (29 U.S. cents) for commuters within Jakarta and Rp 3,800 for those living on the capital's outskirts.
Irzal, who has just retired as assistant to the city secretary for development affairs, also dismissed a plan for building parking lots at Blok M, South Jakarta, to be used by car owners wishing to use the busway.
"What I'm preparing now is for the sake of public transportation users. We'll only provide such parking lots if there is a demand," he said.
Some 120 drivers of busway vehicles will undergo five days of training at the Jakarta Traffic Police training center in Serpong, Tangerang.
"The training is intended to get them used to the technicalities. They will have two days of theory, with the remainder for practice," said Rustam, without specifying the start date.
The reason for providing training is because the buses have different specifications to conventional ones, including left- hand drive.
Rustam emphasized that the drivers had to be capable of operating the buses such that the doors would line up with shelter doorways when they stopped.
To ensure security on the busway project and to maintain the discipline of road users, some 600 personnel from the Jakarta Police will be deployed along the busway corridor.
"We'll assign one officer at each crossing bridge, one at each bus shelter and one in each bus," said city police traffic division chief Sr. Comr. Sulistyo Ishak.
Personnel -- from the city police, city public order agency, and city transportation agency -- are undergoing a two-day training program at the city police headquarters on Tuesday and Wednesday.