Overcrowding dissipates as Jakarta revokes public transport cuts

Jakarta MRT. Photo: Instagram/@mrtjkt
Jakarta MRT. Photo: Instagram/@mrtjkt

Long lines and overcrowding has disappeared at Jakarta’s public transportation facilities this morning after the Jakarta Provincial Government revoked the highly-criticized and short-lived cuts to the capital’s transit schedules.

Yesterday, in accordance with directives from the provincial government, the capital’s major transit options, namely TransJakarta and the MRT, greatly reduced the number of operational vehicles, thus subsequently increasing headway between trips, as the majority of citizens are expected to work from home for the next couple of weeks.

But that policy did not last one day after transit facilities were overcrowded by the overwhelming number of Jakartans who still had to commute to work. 

Following instruction from President Joko Widodo to keep public transportation in cities running, the Jakarta Provincial Government revoked the policy and restored the schedules of the TransJakarta and MRT, effective today. 

“To comply with the president’s instruction on mass transportation, we are once again providing public transportation with a high frequency of trips,” Governor Anies Baswedan said yesterday, as quoted by Detik.

The MRT is now operating between 5am to 12am with the normal rush hour headway of five to 10 minutes between trains restored. However, to allow space between commuters, each train is limited to 360 from its normal capacity of 1,200.

TransJakarta is now operating 123 of its 248 routes, a marked increase from just 13 yesterday. Like the MRT, the number of passengers are being limited to 60 from a capacity of 150 on an articulated bus and 30 from a capacity of 80 on a single-decker.

The LRT, though not a major mode of transportation yet in the capital, has also limited each train to 80 passengers from a capacity of 270.

Thanks to the revised schedules, no overcrowding was reported across Jakarta this morning — a stark contrast to the prime conditions for the coronavirus to spread as created by yesterday’s public transport cuts.

Indonesia has seen a huge surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past week, with 17 new cases confirmed in the latest official update by the Health Ministry yesterday, bringing the total number of domestic infections to 134. Of those, eight people have recovered while five have died.




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