Busway fully operational, but technical flaws linger

Busway fully operational, but technical flaws linger

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The busway's first day of full operation saw the ticketing system
as the major problem, confusing both passengers and on-duty
busway ticket officers.

Starting on Sunday, Jakartans had to pay Rp 2,500 (30 U.S.
cents) for a single trip, marking the end of a two-week free
trial period. However, many passengers were still unable to buy
tickets for feeder buses at certain busway shelters.

"We can't sell the feeder buses tickets because they haven't
been stamped with specific dates yet," a ticket officer at a
shelter on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, told The
Jakarta Post.

The same situation was experienced at Bank Indonesia and the
Jakarta Police Headquarters shelters located on Jl. M.H. Thamrin
and Jl. Jend. Sudirman respectively.

But for Rangga, 30, a resident of Jl. Bekasi Timur, East
Jakarta, buying a feeder bus ticket was not a problem. He bought
the ticket at the Al-Azhar shelter in South Jakarta but the
busway employee on duty gave him the two-part ticket for the
feeder bus that travels between Blok M and Bekasi. Instead of a
stamped date, the officer wrote the date on the ticket.

"It's confusing. The feeder bus' conductor looked confused
when I gave him the ticket. He spoke to the other conductors
before he finally took the ticket," he said.

One of the feeder bus tickets must be given to the bus
conductor while the other section of the ticket must be exchanged
for a single busway ticket at the shelters.

TransJakarta Busway Management head Irzal Z. Djamal said that
the management decided not to sell the feeder bus tickets on
board feeder buses as had originally been planned, for fear that
feeder bus crew would pocket the money from selling tickets by
throwing away the ticket stubs.

"They could claim that they had sold all tickets by showing
the stubs while in fact they had thrown away the rest," he said.

Would-be passengers can buy both the busway and feeder bus
tickets at busway shelters along the 12.9-kilometer corridor
stretching from Blok M in South Jakarta, to Kota in West Jakarta.
They can also buy the tickets at ticket counters at seven major
bus terminals: Kalideres, Pulogadung, Tanjung Priok, Blok M,
Lebak Bulus, Tangerang and Bekasi.

The two-part tickets are offered at Rp 2,800 for inner Jakarta
and Rp 3,900 for outer Jakarta, the price of which includes the
ticket for the busway buses.

The first day of full operation also saw several ticket
machines for the turnstile out of service, forcing officers to
collect the tickets from passengers manually.

Despite all the flaws, Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso still praised
the project, saying it was natural to have hitches on the first
day.

"We will evaluate all the weaknesses of the project so that we
can improve the service when launching other routes," said the
governor, who also paid for a ticket and jumped onto the bus with
his entourage on his way to Al-Azhar mosque.

The city administration plans to set up 14 busway corridors
across the capital; the next on the list being the Pulogadung-
Hotel Indonesia traffic circle corridor.

Sutiyoso also apologized for an accident in which a passenger
named Thomas, 40, broke his leg on Friday evening when his leg
got trapped in the narrow gap between the bus and the shelter at
Dukuh Atas, Central Jakarta.

"The administration will pay for all the medical expenses," he
promised.