The TransJakarta bus network marked its ninth anniversary on Tuesday amid criticism about a declining level of service and falling passenger numbers. (JG Photo/Afriadi Hikmal)
In the nine years that it has been in operation, the TransJakarta bus network has been largely ineffective in getting commuters out of their cars and into buses, observers say.
Putri Dina El-amir, a spokeswoman for the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, said at a discussion on Tuesday that when the program was first rolled out on Jan. 15, 2004, it was expected to serve as the main mover of commuters throughout the city.
She pointed out that the network’s corridor of 12 routes now registered at the most 390,000 passenger trips a day, out of the 26 million passenger trips made daily in Jakarta, according to data from the Transportation Ministry.
Putri also noted that the number of total passenger trips a year on the network actually fell from 114.8 million in 2011 to 111.3 million last year.
ITDP says the adoption of the bus network by motorcycle and car commuters has remained low. Only 24.9 percent of current TransJakarta commuters previously traveled by motorcycle, while just 10.3 percent used to go by car.
Darmaningtyas, the executive director of the Transportation Study Institute, said the fundamental problem behind the low number of people riding the TransJakarta buses was the poor quality of service.
Even after nine years in operation, he said, the network continued to be plagued by a litany of problems, including other vehicles straying into bus lanes and a shortage of buses.
Darmaningtyas said data from his institute indicated that the quality of the service was only getting worse.