Transjogja Urged to Return to Public Service Function

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“Transportation services are in chaos, while locally-generated revenues come up short.”

Yogyakarta – Transportation management by the DIY provincial government through provision of Transjogja buses is considered increasingly disorganised because it has lost its essence as a public service solution for mass transportation. 

“So far, Transjogja has been a double burden. On the one hand, it is expected to address the need for locally-generated revenues (PAD), and on the other it is meant to resolve transportation problems by providing public services,” said Lilik Wachid Budi Susilo, a transportation expert from the Centre for Transportation and Logistics Studies at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, yesterday.

He expressed his disappointment at the meeting between transportation experts and the DIY provincial government at the DIY DPRD yesterday. According to him, these two interests cannot be combined. “If we talk about public transportation, that means services, and how the public can access them most easily, if possible without any cost,” said Lilik. 

According to him, when services are combined with a business orientation, this will create problems for Transjogja. He pointed to the Financial Audit Board (BPK) findings of deviations in the administration of Vehicle Operating Costs in December 2011 in the amount of Rp 21 billion, leading to the suspension of 20 buses because they do not yet have yellow license plates for their operations. “Now everything is gone. Public services and transportation are still chaotic and confused, while PAD still comes up short,” he said.

According to Lilik, learning from advanced countries such as Belgium, the government should find other ways to increase PAD revenues. “Not by tying them up to public service facilities,” he said. The government has ignored that in its Transjogja operations to date. For instance, there are no particular advantages to this transport mode. Transjogja has merged with other transportation modes, simply adding to the congestion because it runs along the slow lane, which is dominated by vehicles travelling slowly. “There is also no advantage in it, particularly in the city centre,” he said. 

In contrast, Tjipto Haribawa, Head of the DIY Transport Office, is confident that with the current position of Transjogja buses, transportation problems can be resolved and local revenues increased. He says that with the transfer of Transjogja to regional company PT Anindya Mitra Internasional, revenues should start coming in, since the nature of the transfer involves PT Jogja Tugu Trans paying a lease to be the operator. “The government will obtain revenues and the public will obtain services,” he said.

Tjipto said that this belief is coupled with systematic completion steps this year to position Transjogja as a service directed towards the ‘bus priority’ context. “Not through a dedicated lane, but by being prioritised,” he said. 

As a pilot project for the Transjogja priority lane, a special lane will be opened on the North ring road, from Jombor to Demak Ijo, stretching 8 kilometres. This lane will be in the middle of the four existing roads. The plan is to build bus shelters in the middle along with crossing bridges. This plan will be proposed in the Revised Local Budget for 2012 (APBD Perubahan). “Buses will only stop at the shelters,” he said. The Transjogja buses will have GPS installed, and it is expected that when they are 100 metres from a traffic light, the traffic light will turn green. As a consequence, the red light for traffic from other directions will be longer. This system will be controlled by the Transport Office.

To improve services, the bus fleet will be expanded to reduce the waiting time for passengers. Passengers are currently complaining of bus delays of 20-25 minutes. The additional buses will be accompanied by the opening of 12 new routes. Currently, the Transjogja bus only operates four routes. “The additional routes will use 112 buses,” he said. This target number of buses will be achieved by 2020. (Pribadi Wicaksono)

16 February 2012
Source : Koran Tempo