Jakarta Busway: A Success Story?

The turn of the year was marked by the opening of two busway corridors extending the coverage of the city transport to the southeast-northwest Jakarta corners and the south-north axis of the eastern parts of Jakarta.

This event was relatively significant as the operation of these corridors (9 and 10) make the Jakarta citizens easily move around the city only with Rp3,500 (40 cents US$) through the connection with the existing busway networks. The passengers can even spend less (Rp2,000) as long as they travel before 07.00 am.

The idea to operate busway was initiated in 1997 inspired by Bogota busway in Colombia as an exemplary model. In this system, the bus was given an exclusive lane on the roads that are part of the busway route. Transjakarta started operations in the early of 2004 to provide faster, convenient, yet affordable transportation means for the Jakarta citizens.

There were skeptical attitude and opposition against the introduction of busway as an alternative public transport in Jakarta. A new idea always gets opposition from a part of the society especially those who are skeptical. You may remember how the similar skeptical attitude rose when the police department issued the rule mandating motorcyclists to wear helmets in the early 1980s. Kompas described the people discontentment against such rule through a caricature depicting a motorcyclist bearing a rice basket upside down on his head in order to observe the rule.

But the reluctance toward the introduction of busway was not without reason. Most of Jakarta roads are narrow clogged with cars and would be even worse if they are reduced by the busway lanes. Actually, there are several problems the operators have to solve, among others the lack of buses during the peak hours, lack of AC in some bus shelters, CNG usage as busway fuel, and the external problem such as private cars flocking the lanes.

There are a total of 97 kilometers of busway lanes and 120 bus shelters built along the lanes. As many as 270 single and 16 double-buses are in operation carrying around 250,000 passengers daily. From those figures, some of them are from motorcyclists and car owners who regularly shift using the busway keeping their vehicles at home.


With the aim to improve the service and to cut down the subsidy, in 2007 the city government, supported by local House members, planned to double the tariff to Rp 7,000. The plan was dropped as some NGOs were sternly against it. This certainly burdens the city budget and reducing the city capability to construct the remaining 5 corridors as it was planned. 

The planned tariff hike could be too high, and to avoid the turmoil the increase should be implemented in a gradual way. And to reduce the burden of frequent passengers, the city should issue busway subscription cards with reasonably lower rates. 

But one is for certain; the sustainability of the busway operation should be maintained. The city should provide sufficient funds for the operation and maintenance by balancing the rate of the tariffs with the financial capability of the city government to provide subsidies. 

And last but not least, the management should pay enough attention to the welfare of the drivers and related workers so they would have a sense of belonging and are proud of their profession. It is so simple and easy to say but in reality, it requires a strong political will and a lot of support from all stakeholders to execute such things in a realistic way.

Despite many criticisms and the inconvenience of the private vehicles due to the operation of this busway, from the point of view of the passengers, they feel quite comfortable because of a cheaper tariff, more efficient and less frustrated due to the avoidance of traffic congestion. Hopefully, Transjakarta will meet the expectations to become a public transportation means, which is integrated, comfortable, well managed and become a good long term solution for managing Jakarta traffic congestion.