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.