JAKARTA: Jakarta’s public transportation system is seeing rising ridership across major modes this year, signalling growing demand for reliable mass transit, but experts say its potential remains largely untapped without better connections to the thousands of housing developments across Greater Jakarta.
The Jakarta branch of Statistics Indonesia (BPS) recorded year-on-year ridership growth across the city’s three monitored public transportation systems, namely the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Jakarta, the Light Rail Transit (LRT Jakarta) and bus service TransJakarta.
Passenger numbers rose 6.13 per cent for the MRT, 3.06 per cent for the LRT and 7.19 per cent for TransJakarta. TransJakarta remained by far the busiest mode in July, carrying 40.32 million passengers, compared with 4.64 million on the MRT and 125,120 on the LRT.
Transportation expert Djoko Setijowarno said improvements to Jakarta’s public transportation network, which now covers up to 92.5 per cent of the capital, had clearly contributed to the increase in ridership.
However, he said the expansion had yet to significantly reduce private vehicle use, as commuters from neighboring cities in Greater Jakarta continue to rely on their cars of motorcycles due to limited public transportation options outside the capital.
The latest data from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy recorded 1.5 million daily commuter trips from the satellite cities of Bogor, Depok and Bekasi in West Java, as well as Tangerang and South Tangerang in Banten, to Jakarta, underscoring the need for a more integrated transportation system. “
There are hundreds of thousands of housing developments in Greater Jakarta, but less than 10 per cent are served by public transportation,” Djoko told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
“So the challenge ahead is to ensure these residential areas are connected to public transportation, with stations, transit stops and bus stops available.”
Tya Andini, a 31-year-old South Tangerang resident who commutes to her office in Central Jakarta twice a week, said the lack of convenient connections to nearest MRT Jakarta station in Lebak Bulus, South Jakarta, had forced her to drive her car instead.
To take the MRT, she had to drive and park her car near the Lebak Bulus station or use ride-hailing service, which can cost her up to Rp 60,000 (US$3.4) for a round trip. She spends roughly the same amount on tolls and fuel when driving herself.
“I choose to drive for convenience, especially these days when ride-hailing drivers often cancel orders without a clear reason,” she said.
The Jakarta administration has sought to improve connectivity beyond the capital by continuously expanding Transjabodetabek bus services, with fares subsidized through public service obligation funds allocated in the Jakarta budget.
But Djoko said the administrations of Bogor, Depok, Bekasi, Tangerang and South Tangerang should also contribute, particularly given their sizeable regional budgets, to further expand public transportation services, including to the growing residential areas in their respective regions.
Urban and transportation systems expert Alyas Widita of Monash University noted that while the proportion of trips made by public transportation had increased, private vehicle ownership in Jakarta also continued to grow.
To sustain strong public transportation ridership, Alyas said authorities also needed to improve coordination between land-use planning and transportation around public transit hubs.
“It is estimated that 1,000 job opportunities located in transit-oriented development [TOD] areas can generate around 300 additional passengers on weekdays,” he said, referring to his 2024 research on TOD and ridership in Jakarta.
“This shows that [providing] transportation services alone are not enough if areas surrounding transit hubs are not developed in a coordinated manner.” - The Jakarta Post/ANN
