Fares for night transport

JAKARTA (JP): The organization of public transport owners, Organda, said yesterday the night transport program would not be successful unless the city administration increased fares.

The organization's head, Aip Syarifuddin, said most of the organization's members did not use their vehicles at night because they could not make enough profit to cover operational costs.

"We have been asking the administration to allow us to charge higher fares for night transport ever since the program started in 1994. We knew it was impossible to implement the policy with regular fares," Aip said.

He said the city administration rejected the idea and said all public transport vehicles must use fares set by the government and there were no exceptions.

He said legal vehicles should be allowed to charge Rp 1,500 (U.S. 65 cents) per person, which is what illegal vehicles charged. The official rate is Rp 500.

Aip said Organda had asked the city administration to consider the matter again.

"It's up to the administration now. Are they really serious about providing public transport for Jakartans at night?" he asked.

Aip said his organization would not sanction companies which refused to deploy their fleets or those that charged higher fares.

"This is a very difficult situation. We cannot punish them because they need to make a profit too," he said.

The city administration started a program in 1994 which forced public transport companies to deploy their fleets at night.

Under the program all public transport companies must operate 20 percent of their fleet at night to satisfy transport demand.

The program was aimed at providing safe, reliable and legal night transport for Jakartans because night transport was dominated by illegal vans.

The head of the Land Transportation and Traffic Control Agency JP Sepang said the operation of public transit vehicles at night was also designed to limit the operation of unauthorized 12-seat minivans which dominate the night transport market.

However, the program has failed as not all public transportation companies deploy their fleets at night and illegal vehicles are still prevalent. (yns)