Jakarta busway fares increased by 40%

Jakarta busway fares increased by 40%

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Jakarta administration announced on Wednesday that it had
decided to raise the busway ticket price by between 33 percent
and 40 percent in order to adjust to the Oct. 1 fuel price hike
by an average of 126.6 percent.

"We have no choice but to raise the fare. Otherwise, we will
find it difficult to shoulder the ballooning costs for the
operation of the busway due to the recent fuel price increase,"
Governor Sutiyoso explained.

The fare increase will be the first since the busway project
was launched in mid-January last year.

Busway tickets sold between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. for commuters
and students rose to Rp 2,000, or by 33 percent, from a previous
Rp 1,500, while the tickets sold between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. will
increase by nearly 40 percent to Rp 3,500 from Rp 2,500.

"The new fares came into effect on Wednesday," said newly
appointed head of BP TransJakarta Busway Management, Bambang
Gardjito.

The bus fares, for feeder buses, also rose to Rp 4,000, or 38
percent, from Rp 2,900 for non air-conditioned buses, while for
air-conditioned ones, the fare jumped to Rp 6,500, or 71 percent
as compared to Rp 3,800 previously.

Bambang said that the administration would provide cash
assistance, that amounted to a discount, to every busway
passenger riding the busway feeder system in order to help
alleviate the burden of the busway passengers.

"For every passenger of an air-conditioned feeder bus, we
provide Rp 1,000 in cash, while for passengers of non air-
conditioned buses we provide Rp 1,500 every time they buy a
ticket on the feeder buses," he said.

In another development, Sutiyoso also hinted on Wednesday that
his administration would only tolerate an increase in taxi fares
by an average of 40 percent, much lower than the 136 percent
proposed by the Jakarta chapter of the Organization of Land
Transportation Owners (Organda DKI).

"The increase in taxi fares must be in line with the increase
in bus fares of 40 percent on average. That's the tolerable
level," Sutiyoso said.

He added that the administration would limit its intervention
in the increase in taxi fares, saying that "the market mechanism"
would play the main role.

City Transportation Agency head Nurrachman declined to detail
the proposed increase and his agency's preliminary analysis of
the proposal.

"We are still deliberating on the proposal ... We will also
consult the Jakarta Transportation Council over the proposed taxi
fares," he told The Jakarta Post.

Organda DKI wants to raise the flag fall by 77.5 percent to Rp
7,100 from Rp 4,000, the charge per kilometer to Rp 2,600, or by
44.4 percent from the current Rp 1,800.

Organda taxi division head Ateng Aryono said that many taxi
operators had to fork out extra funds in order to plug the
deficit owing to the ballooning fuel cost.

"But, of course, we won't be able to withstand the deficit any
longer. The raising of taxi fares is an urgent matter," he said.

Ateng, who is also an executive with the city's largest player
in the taxi business, Blue Bird Group, said his company currently
had to provide an additional Rp 600 million per day to subsidize
the fuel used by the company's taxis.