Busway feeder service failure admitted

Bambang Nurbianto and Damar Harsanto, Jakarta

The TransJakarta Busway management admits that it has failed to provide feeder services for the 12.9-kilometer busway corridor from Blok M, South Jakarta, to Kota, West Jakarta.

Management head Irzal Djamal said on Tuesday that eight bus operators did not provide an adequate number of feeder services, as specified in an agreement signed between them earlier.

"I have already warned the operators about the small number of passengers buying combination tickets for the feeder and the busway. We shall evaluate their performance after their contract expires next month," Irzal told The Jakarta Post.

The eight operators are Metromini, Kopaja, Steady Safe, Bianglala, state-owned PPD, Kopami, Pahala Kencana and Mayasari Bhakti.

Data from the management shows that the 383 feeder buses owned by the eight operators have accommodated only a few hundred passengers, although the number of busway passengers is around 62,000 people per day.

Irzal claimed that the failure was because bus crews preferred to accept cash from feeder pedestrians instead of tickets as provided by the busway management.

However, PPD spokesman Safrudin Dahlan refuted Irzal's statement, saying that the bus operators did not receive any benefit by providing feeder services, as there was no clear statement of responsibilities of the operators and the busway management.

He added that the failure was also sparked by few passengers willing to buy feeder tickets.

The busway management has prepared two types of feeder buses: air-conditioned buses, whose fare is Rp 3,900 (42 U.S. cents) and non-air-conditioned buses, which charge Rp 2,900.

The feeder bus concept differed from the plan as originally conceived, in which the management planned to categorize buses based on zoning.

The management has also yet to decommission other buses whose routes overlap that of the busway.

Despite a failure to provide adequate feeder services, the city transportation agency has insisted on starting construction of the second busway corridor from Kalideres, West Jakarta, to Pulogadung, East Jakarta.

"We shall proceed with the (second corridor) project, no matter what critics say," agency head Rustam Effendy Sidabutar said.

He also rejected any significant changes to the planned corridor, including a recommendation from a transportation expert to reroute the corridor due to major damage that would be caused by the project.

"There will be no significant changes; the decision is final."

The estimated cost of the second corridor infrastructure totals Rp 600 billion.

"The agency is responsible for building bus stops and pedestrian bridges for the project, which will cost around Rp 369 billion," he said.

The city public works agency and city parks agency will be responsible for the establishment of lanes and median strips along the corridor.

Rustam acknowledged that the new corridor budget would be higher than that for the first project due to technical difficulties in the field. "Some parts of the planned corridor have only two lanes, with others three. We must sort that out prior to implementation of the busway."

The agency also plans the construction of two other new corridors: Pulogadung, East Jakarta, to Hotel Indonesia, Central Jakarta, in 2006, and Kampung Rambutan, East Jakarta, to Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, in 2007.