Hilly resort town Puncak in Bogor, West Java may be one of Jakartans’ favorite spots for short getaways, but its popularity has also made it a notorious traffic nightmare during public holidays and weekends.
The government has employed numerous traffic diversion tactics in Puncak to small degrees of success over the years. But now, they have come to realize that the best way to reduce the number of cars from driving up to the resort town is to give people a viable alternative to ditch their vehicles.
“In the long term, we want to build mass public transportation to Puncak, namely an LRT line from Baranangsiang (bus terminal in Bogor). We will turn Baranangsiang into a transit oriented development. From Baranansiang [the LRT line] will run through Gadog and then to Puncak,” said Bambang Prihartono, who heads the Transportation Ministry’s Transportation Development Agency in the Greater Jakarta Area, as quoted by CNBC Indonesia today.
As exciting as this news is, Bambang did not give any timeframe to the Puncak LRT line’s estimated completion date, as plans for it are still in the preliminary stages.
The Puncak LRT line will be part of the LRT Jabodebek system, which connects Jakarta with satellite cities Bogor, Depok and Bekasi, and not LRT Jakarta (you can read our review of the capital’s relatively new railway system here).
The first phase of LRT Jabodebek, which will serve three lines, namely Cawang-Cibubur, Cawang-Kuningan-Dukuh Atas and Cawang-Bekasi, is targeted to be fully operational by November 2021. Last month, several train sets were placed on the LRT Jabodebek railway tracks for tests to be carried out in the next few months.
Plans and funding for phase two of the LRT Jabodebek project, which will connect the service to Depok and Bogor, are still being discussed. However, the government has targeted its completion for 2022.
For now, officials say that there will be a flat fare of IDR12K (US$0.85) to ride the LRT Jabodebek.
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