Jakarta’s shiny new Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, which opened to the public at the end of March, has faced the challenge of getting riders to follow its rules from the start, particularly its prohibition on eating and drinking on trains and in stations.
Read also: Our first impressions of Jakarta’s MRT: A fast, quiet, and smooth ride aboard the ‘Ratangga’
After easing those rules slightly during the month of Ramadan to allow riders to break their fasts while on its trains (only with dates or water), the mass transit system is once again cracking down on passengers eating and drinking by handing out hefty IDR500,000 (US$35) fines.
The MRT’s director of operations and maintenance, Muhammad Effendi, said MRT authorities had sanctioned several passengers recently for violating the rules.
“There are about 10 people if I’m not mistaken,” Effendi said yesterday as quoted by Kompas.
If you think that an IDR500k fine is harsh for a food fine, don’t feel too bad for the sanctioned. Effendi said that most of those passengers who were caught breaking the rules didn’t end up paying as they said they didn’t have the money to cover it.
“We have caught several passengers for violating (the rules about eating inside MRT stations). They have no money, so we asked for a photocopy of their ID cards and we made them sign a statement that they would not repeat their actions again,” he said.
The MRT operations director said the fine was mainly meant to be a deterrent against other passengers breaking the rules, which are aimed at keeping the MRT stations clean and tidy. He said that repeat offenders who couldn’t pay the fine would be required to get a letter from their neighborhood head (RT) stating they couldn’t afford it.
