Fewer people take busway amid ticketing confusion

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The busway service saw a decline in the number of passengers during its work-day operation on Tuesday, in contrast with the two-week free trial period.

The Rp 2,500 (30 U.S. cents) single-trip fare, effective Feb. 1, was definitely not an issue because on Sunday and Monday passengers still enjoyed the Idul Adha holidays by crowding the busway buses and shelters.

"There have been fewer passengers compared to previous days but I think we still had quite a lot during the morning rush hour," said a ticket officer at the Kota shelter in West Jakarta.

Most shelters along the 12.9-kilometer busway corridor were seen empty throughout the day while the buses only carried an average of between 40 and 50 passengers. Many passengers also chose to ride the full length from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota or vice versa.

"The buses are quite empty now, though they are still quite full upon entering and departing the terminals," said Ani, a passenger who boarded the busway from the Raja Mas shelter near Glodok Plaza, West Jakarta, referring to the Blok M and Kota terminals.

During the free trial period, the busway buses carried more than their capacity of 85 passengers each due to public enthusiasm for the new facility modeled on a similar transportation system used in Colombia.

Passengers were questioning the feeder bus ticketing system on Tuesday.

Endang, a passenger on a Bianglala PAC45 Ciputat-Kota bus, questioned what would happen if his regular bus was to stop operating and he had to start using the busway and the feeder bus service.

Endang, who usually takes a regular bus from a bus stop near his house directly to his office on Jl. Gajah Mada for Rp 3,300, said he would have to take another bus to Lebak Bulus bus terminal -- adding to his transportation expenses -- as the Rp 2,900 to Rp 3,800 feeder bus tickets are only available there for the time being.

"We can't buy the feeder bus tickets onboard the buses while there are no feeder buses serving Ciputat yet."

The TransJakarta Busway management head Irzal Djamal said earlier that the management had decided not to sell tickets onboard the feeder buses, for fear that the crew would throw away the tickets and show the stubs to claim their fare reimbursement.

Fortunately for Endang, the Bianglala buses were still serving their route on Tuesday.

Though scarce, the PPD P1 and PAC-B1 buses that travel between Blok M and Kota, were also still in operation in a parallel route to the busway as they have not been officially rerouted yet, said a PPD official.

The PPD PAC-01 Lebak Bulus-Kota buses will be rerouted to pass through Slipi, Tomang and Jl. Suryo Pranoto, thus overlapping the busway corridor only from Blok M to the Semanggi clover leaf and from the parallel thoroughfares of Jl. Gajah Mada and Jl. Hayam Wuruk to Kota.

Agung, a student living in Bekasi who boarded a busway bus from the Bendungan Hilir shelter, said that it would now be seen whether the busway could really compete with other bus companies in providing public transportation service.

"The management must realize that most busway passengers are attracted to the busway for its convenience and its speed, and it should maintain these two most important factors. If not, don't be surprised if the number of passengers drops off," he said.