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.


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!



Boarding up.



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.








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



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.



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.



Bus attendant.



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...



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.



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. ;)



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.







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



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. :|



"Pickpockets & singing beggar free"



"Smoking free area"

The rest of the photos are various interior shots:















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.