Tags: Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta

Tags: Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Mustaqim Adamrah, Power saving program

Tags: Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Lagak Jakarta (Jakarta Style) series of cartoons

Tags: Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Economic growth, Jakarta Statistics Agency

A split has been planned in the Indonesian National Railway Company (PT KA) since 2000, with its Greater Jakarta Division.

It has long been suggested that the division, which has served an average of 65 percent of the company's annual 160 million passengers, could not be managed properly by a centralized unit and had no power to make its own decisions.

But PT KA has not made much progress at the junction, with several legal and political hurdles on the tracks.

Train observer Taufik Hidayat of Indonesian Railway Watch said the central government was simply not paying enough attention to the Jakarta city train network.

He criticized the government and PT KA for not having any plans to develop the network as the backbone of land transit.

"There has been no long term development goals until now, as if it has no past and future," Taufik said.

Revitalization paths have always been short-term, and project based.

"The plan to split with the Greater Jakarta division has been scheduled since the 1980s but things have hardly changed," he said.

PT KA management's poor capacity had plunged the public service into a shabby condition, Taufik said.

He cited, as an example, that the company had never openly stated its annual expenditure to the public. It had only stated their income but never really explained where all the money was spent, he said.

Taufik said the company received some Rp 450 billion (US$47.4 million) in funding from private firms in Indonesia last year, through the Public Service Obligation (PSO) scheme, but has not explained where that money went.

PT KA spokesman Syaiful Echwan confirmed that the company had received the money but had declined to state it publicly since it was still conducting an audit of last year's accounts.

He also declined to divulge the company's financial statements, saying the company was busy with the audit and budgeting for next year.

Syaiful only mentioned that the total budget for the revitalization of the national train network was Rp 19 trillion.

He said the Greater Jakarta Division would receive a significant portion of the budget since it had the highest profits among other divisions.

"We are still calculating the exact allocation," Taufik said.

 

Tags: Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Indonesian National Railway Company, Indonesian Railway Watch

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Train passengers at Manggarai station in South Jakarta are getting used to uncomfortable waits, with many of them spreading newspapers on the floor to sit out the long gaps between trains.

On Monday afternoon the station wasn't crowded, but the few seats were not enough for the hundreds of commuters awaiting their trains.

Hamdani of Depok Baru, who uses the express train every day, said he was used to standing at platforms as almost no stations in Greater Jakarta were equipped with enough waiting chairs.

On this day he also sat on the platform as the trains were behind schedule.

"I don't mind enduring this hardship, because I'm already used to sitting on the floor in the train, and it is much better than enduring zillions of traffic jams to get to my office," said the employee of a private company in South Jakarta.

It has been love-hate relationship between passengers and the city's train network. As one of the most extensive transit systems linking the city to its neighboring regions, it has been the answer for many residents tired of traffic jams.

But passengers endure glitches in the service.

Delays are frequent and trains not always well-maintained. Some riders have to struggle to get to their trains as most stations in Greater Jakarta are not equipped with sufficient parking space.

"I need to wait for my husband to drop me at the station early in the morning and pick me in the afternoon as there is no parking lot here," said Nina Wahyuni, a researcher at an institute in Menteng, South Jakarta, who travels by the 6 a.m train from Bogor to Sudirman station every day.

The number of passengers on state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api (PT KA) trains in Greater Jakarta has dropped in recent years as services have scarcely improved despite the increasing fare for all train classes.

From 117 million passengers in 2002, the company was down to 100 million in 2005.

However, as roads gets increasingly congested every year, the central government and the Jakarta administration have renewed their hope in using the network to ease traffic.

A train law passed last year obliges PT KA to split its authority to private firms or local governments to improve services.

The law ordered that after a transition period lasting until 2009, every region could operate its own train service, with PT KA staying on only as the controller of railway network.

The privatization plan has pushed the rail company to make major changes to its networks, and to target raising the number of daily passengers in Greater Jakarta from about 290,000 in 2006, or 1.75 percent of area's 16 million total commuters, to 390,000 by 2010.

It has conducted a series of evictions along the rail tracks to keep trains from delays and accidents.

The company has also increased cars for several routes like Depok-Manggarai as well as revitalized several abandoned lines like the Ciliwung Blue Line that traverses the inner-city.

The inner-city line from Manggarai station to Jatinegara station in East Jakarta last operated in the 1980s. It was closed within a few years as it attracted very few passengers.

The company also plans to redesign the network by making the Manggarai station the central hub for lines from eastern and southern Jakarta, thus avoiding conflicts with the increasing number of train cars operating in Greater Jakarta.

Once the station is reconstructed, no train from southern outskirt of Jakarta will travel directly to Kota station in West Jakarta.

Spokesman for PT KA's Greater Jakarta division Akhmad Sujadi said a lack of attention from the central and local governments was the main reason for the network's problems.

"Road-based transportation has outpaced the train network in the past decades while the Greater Jakarta division was trapped as only a small unit within the company," he told The Jakarta Post.

The division had to make decisions only with the approval of the company's central management, he said, effectively handcuffing efforts to set tracks and improve services for decades.

"Most of the tracks in Greater Jakarta are Dutch-inherited, built for trade activities, so some tracks do not match the commuting patterns today," Akhmad said.

One of the idle tracks links Kota to Tanjung Priok. Several parts of the track were covered by semi-permanent settlements.

Company-built lines include the Depok-Bogor line and the double-track linking Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta to Serpong in Tangerang.

In 2000, the division was given greater autonomy, but its income still goes directly to company headquarters, with the division receiving its budget from the larger unit.

"We are trying so hard to improve our services, but of course it will take a while before we really meet people's expectations," said Akhmad.

Annual passengers and ticket sales of PT KA's Greater Jakarta division

Year Passengers Ticket sales

(in millions) (in billions of rupiah)
2002 117.86 119.26
2003 102.04 156.41
2004 100.39 169.12
2005 100.96 186.51
2006 104.58 205.86

 

Tags: Adisti Sukma Sawitri, PT Kereta Api, Train Service

Adisti Sukma Sawitri and Mustaqim Adamrah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

It has been a roller-coaster year for the administration, campaigning for its Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.

After gaining various awards and praise for the public transit solution last year, the administration faced public criticism, in the fourth quarter of 2007, over its handling of the busway network expansion, with more main thoroughfares becoming obstructed.

Amid Jakarta's chronic traffic congestion, motorists found a new scapegoat for the problem: the busway and its exclusive lanes.

The resistance became so loud that the administration has decided to stop construction on the network next year.

"Motorists get really angry because they feel they have been forced into sacrificing their roads for a system which does not work, but the busway is still the most modern form of transit available for (Jakarta) passengers," said Rudy Thehamihardja, a transport surveillance officer from the Heritage Foundation (a non-profit organization overseeing transportation development).

The busway network is one of four modes of transport planned under the administration's Macro Transportation Framework.

Established in 2004, the busway was intended to provide an alternative mode of transport for Jakarta citizens. The administration predicted that without significantly increasing its roads, Jakarta would become gridlocked by 2014.

Since other means of public transport including a monorail, subway and water vessels were considered either more expensive or unfeasible, the administration has invested more than Rp 1 trillion on expanding the busway network over the last five years.

Since the construction of the first busway corridor (joining Blok M and Kota) began in 2002 the administration has targeted to complete 15 corridors by 2010.

With rapid network expansion — four new corridors last year and three this year — the administration and its busway management company, Transjakarta, have paid less attention to detail in the quality of service provided.

Among other basic necessities which have slipped past the planning board, the administration and the Transjakarta busway management company failed to furnish bus companies in the network with clear contracts to ensure standards were met and maintained.

PT Jakarta Ekspress Trans (operating corridor 1, Blok M-Kota) and PT Trans Batavia operating (corridors 2 and 3) have both been given contracts but without clear arrangements for rewards or penalties.

Unlike the system the Jakarta busway is based on, in Bogota, Colombia, Transjakarta has yet to implement a minimum daily kilometer (payment) arrangement for its bus companies. The present payment structure is fixed only when a fuel price increase occurs.

Jakarta busway operators are paid based on the total number of kilometers traveled, regardless of the time buses spend stuck in traffic jams at intersections (often because other vehicles have been allowed to use the exclusive lanes).

"We experienced a price hike on spare parts last year but have yet to receive a payment adjustment for this," PT Jakarta Ekspress Trans personnel and finance director Ibnu Susanto said.

The contracts also do not mention rewards or punishments for bus companies not adhering to minimum service standards.

Companies operating corridors 4 to 7, PT Jakarta Mega Trans and PT Jakarta Trans Metropolitan, do not have permanent contracts yet despite operating for one year.

"We've conducted our service based on a letter from the administration," PT Jakarta Mega Trans (operating corridors 5 and 7) operational director Gani Kamaludin said.

The letter simply states Transjakarta would pay some Rp 12,885 per operational kilometer, without elaborating on how this figure was met.

PT Jakarta Trans Metropolitan (serving corridors 4 and 6) operational director I Gde Bagus Oka, said his company did not benefit under present conditions. He said it had faced growing inefficiency with increased traffic jams since the opening of the exclusive lanes, and long waiting times at CNG filling stations.

"We understand the administration wanted to build the network as quickly as possible, but in the long run of course we are looking for a more secure arrangement," he said.

The administration only built two CNG stations on Jl. Daan Mogot in West Jakarta and Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan in East Jakarta. These are supposed to serve 238 gas-fueled buses in corridors 2 to 7, meaning buses spend up to two hours just to refuel.

Buses needing to refuel during the day have resulted in waiting times well beyond the targeted maximum 10 minutes.

Various studies showed passenger waiting times were anywhere between 5 and 60 minutes at busway shelters.

Transjakarta head Dradjad Adhyaksa attributed the poor service record to a "limited" budget and "high" overhead.

Transjakarta needed to cut its operating costs by reducing busway services outside peak hours, Dradjad said.

"I will not say we work inefficiently or ineffectively. This is the best service we can provide on such a limited budget," he said.

Transjakarta gets its revenue from ticket sales and government subsidies. Last year some 25 percent of the company's Rp 174.52 billion operating cost came from subsidies.

The four new corridors that opened this year, however, increased Transjakarta's dependency on government funding. Approximately 54 percent of its estimated Rp 433 billion running cost came from the city budget. Dradjad said Transjakarta would spend 72 percent of its operating costs on bus companies alone.

The poor service and failure to produce conducive contracts were largely beyond Transjakarta's control, Dradjad said.

"We have service standards for operators … but we cannot enforce them because there are too many conditions beyond our control," he said.

Dradjad said Transjakarta did not have any power in the decision making process, for example, in the current mixed traffic arrangement or the limited number of gas refilling stations.

He said the poor service was due to tardy procurement of extra buses by two companies within the network; Jakarta Mega Trans and Jakarta Trans Metropolitan.

Transjakarta opened corridors 4 to 7 in January 2007, with only eight buses operational. A contract between Transjakarta and the corridor's two bus companies stated that the latter would provide 129 buses by January. Because of the shortfall, buses from other corridors were sent to the four new corridors.

Dradjad declined to say why Transjakarta had insisted on opening the corridors.

 

Tags: Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Busway Expansion, Mustaqim Adamrah