Management aborts feeder contracts
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
TransJakarta Busway Management has terminated the contracts of two busway feeder system operators due to their failure to comply with the required services for the 12.9-kilometer busway corridor from Blok M in South Jakarta to Kota in West Jakarta.
The termination of the contracts takes effect on Monday.
"The two operators, Kopami Jaya and PT Metromini, failed to improve their services, even though we already reprimanded them. We have received lots of complaints from the feeder bus passengers on their poor service," busway management spokesman Adjar Aedi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday by phone.
He said passengers had complained that crews on the feeder buses routinely refused to accept feeder bus tickets, instead demanding cash.
"We hope the annulment of the contracts will serve as a warning to other operators to improve their services," he said.
Kopami and PT Metromini served five routes: Cidelug-Blok M (with the Metromini S 69), Ragunan-Blok M (Metromini S 77), Pondok Labu-Blok M (Metromini S 610), Lebak Bulus-Blok M (Metromini S 72) and Senen-Muara Angke (Kopami Jaya P.02).
The other feeder system operators are state-owned bus operator PPD, Steady Safe, Kopaja, Bianglala, Pahala Kencana and Mayasari Bhakti.
"We are still discussing with the City Transportation Agency the possibility of getting new feeder service operators to replace the two whose contracts we terminated," Adjar said.
Representatives of PT Metromini and Kopami Jaya could not be reached for comment.
Busway management head Irzal Z Djamal has acknowledged the failure of the feeder system to provide adequate service to the public.
He said the eight feeder system operators have failed to provide an adequate number of buses as specified in the agreement they signed.
Data from the management shows the 383 feeder buses owned by the eight operators accommodate only a few hundred passengers a day, far from the average number of busway passengers of about 62,000 per day.
Irzal said the number of passengers using the feeder services had continued to decline since the operation of the feeder buses began on Feb. 1.
The transportation agency, however, plans to continue with the expansion of the busway, with the construction of new corridors from Pulo Gebang in East Jakarta, to Kalideres in West Jakarta, via the National Monument Park (Monas).
The Pulo Gebang-Monas corridor is slated to be operational next June, while the Monas-Kalideres is expected to open in October 2005.
With at least nine months to go, however, the Post observed on Sunday no construction work along the proposed new corridors. The City Parks Agency, which is responsible for removing trees along the median strips along Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan and Jl. Suprapto, has yet to begin the work.
The City Public Works Agency has also yet to widen the narrow parts of Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan and clear it of on-street parking and street vendors.