Trans Jogja

Yesterday I came along with Ucok and Sasha to try out the new public transportation system in the city, the Patas Trans Jogja. This is the second bus rapid transit system implementation in Indonesia, after Trans Jakarta. Trans Jogja has been planned since 2007 and after a few launch delays it finally came into service and opened to the public last Monday (18/2). So far there are 54 Trans Jogja buses running in 6 routes, replacing 108 old city buses.

Since the service itself is still in tryout period, ticket price is still as cheap as IDR1000 for a single trip... in March it will be IDR3000, though there will also be a subscription feature in which the ticket price is reduced to IDR2700 for general passengers, and IDR2000 for students.

We chose to board from a shelter in Cik Di Tiro Street near Gramedia bookstore, planning to go south and switching to another bus that could take us back to where we start via different route.


image name
Arriving at the bus shelter. Some of these shelters should have been made larger, specially the ones near where many people gather like schools, malls, and the likes... in busy hours, these small shelters easily get crowded and people have to wait outside the shelter. Sucks when it's raining!


image name

Boarding up.


image name

The single trip ticket. Please pardon Sasha posing. ;p

After that, waiting. The time lapse between each bus arrival isn't constant yet... When it's right on schedule you will wait for barely 5 minutes, yet sometimes it can be as long as 20 minutes before the next bus comes.The distance between bus shelters
which vary greatly may also contribute to that.

image name


image name


image name


image name

The shelter attendants are pretty nice and informative, though sometimes they still haven't perfectly remembered all the different routes.


image name

Finally, aboard the bus! A view from behind the driver seat. One of the things differentiating Trans Jogja from its sister in Jakarta is the fact that Trans Jogja doesn't have its own lane here, so it's mixed with regular traffic. Because of this, buses sometimes don't arrive on schedule... but given the relatively small roads we have here, it's not like we have any other choices. Except in some heavy crowded streets though, the buses have been moving rather smoothly.


image name

Another problem is that other vehicles sometimes stop or park too near from a bus shelter, hindering the buses movement and further delaying the schedule. Here a rickshaw was dropping a passenger on the bus' shelter lane.


image name

Bus attendant.


image name

The bus cabin is not really spacious, though it can hold a maximal capacity of around 40 passengers (half seated half standing configuration) But I can say it's pretty comfortable, with air conditioner and nice seats. At least you wouldn't feel like inside a sardine box like how it is in some regular city buses in Jogja...


image name

The bus is also equipped with some safety equipments like glass-shattering hammer as you can see here, a small fire extinguisher beside the driver seat, and there's also an emergency exit door. Trans Jakarta has these safety equipments in greater numbers, since they operate bigger buses there.


image name

Ah, this one has nothing to do at all with the bus, it's just what we did while we're about to switch buses. It was raining, so we had to wait in this small angkringan and enjoy some warm tea. Hospitality of Jogja at its best, I tell you. ;)


image name

Waiting in another shelter to change bus route. Again, here you can see how small the shelter is... luckily we didn't have to wait long in this one.


image name




image name
A bus attendant helping an elderly to get off the bus.


image name
You can also ask him about the different routes of the buses or other questions related to the service. It sure is nice when these guys are paid with regular salary instead of having an income target each day like the usual city buses in Indonesia... this way they can care more about the passengers and not just saving their own asses. I've had enough with frantic bus drivers and rude bus helpers. :|


image name
"Pickpockets & singing beggar free"


image name
"Smoking free area"

The rest of the photos are various interior shots:


image name


image name


image name


image name


image name


image name


image name


Overall, Trans Jogja leaves quite a good first impression to me on its tryout period. There are definitely some flaws, though to me the problems lay more in the shelters and the routes than in the buses (the buses are real nice!) Hopefully they will work on it and develop the system in better direction. More routes and shelters (bigger ones too!), most importantly. We'll see if Trans Jogja will prove to be a good solution for traffic problems in Jogja or further complicating them.

Lost

Back from Bali. Wasn't exactly a fully enjoyable trip as I wanted, stupid weather kept getting in the way (heavy rains in Bali are scary!), but at least I came back with fresher mind, sort of. And I guess it's always good to be just in new, unfamiliar places every now and then. Curing that saturated feeling of being in the same place and seeing the same things for too long. I needed it.

Didn't make too many photos... I'd like to think that it's because I'm getting more selective in what I photograph but there's also the possibility of not being used out in the street again... these days I find myself spending more time in front of the computer to see photos or read blogs and other stuff than actual shooting. It's good learning all the information that internet can provide (it really is true that the more you learn the more you realize how little you know) but without knowing the scope one can easily gets lost along the way, even straying from the original intentions.

So anyway, enjoy. All with D80 and 18-135.


image name


image name



image name



image name



image name



image name



image name



image name



image name

Indian marines. There were many of them that day, all in groups of three or four people like this one... dunno if they're in transit or something, but most of them have the same attitudes, trying to look all calm and reserved yet at the same time obviously seem not sure about where they are and what they're doing there... I can actually relate to that feeling to some degree.

image name

And what would pictures from Bali be without sunsets! But seriously, it was beautiful.

image name

A nod to Erwitt.

image name



image name



image name



image name



image name



image name



image name



image name



image name

Yes we Asian tourists are the best. ;)


image name


image name



image name



image name



image name


And that would be all.