Bus owners mulling busway feeder services
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.