City Council Sets MRT Fare at Rp 8,500

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The Jakarta administration and council will discuss further the amount of government subsidy and detailed distance-based fares for the city’s brand new MRT system. An agreement is expected by the end of March.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — In a joint leadership meeting of the Jakarta administration and council on Monday (25/3/2019) afternoon, City Council Speaker Prasetio Edi Marsudi said that the fare for the Jakarta MRT would be Rp 8,500 (US 60 cents) per 10 kilometers per person. Meanwhile, the fare for the LRT system was set at Rp 5,000 per 10 km per person.

The decisions were in line with the proposal made by region-owned companies PT MRT Jakarta and PT Jakarta Propertindo, as the Jakarta LRT operator. The decisions were made after hearing input from city councilors and commission heads.

“I made the decision based on all input. I asked if Rp 8,500 for the MRT sounded okay and all city councilors who were present agreed with me,” Prasetio said.

However, the exact amount of government subsidy and detailed distance-based fare for the MRT system have yet to be decided. Further discussions will be necessary before the MRT system’s full commercial operation on April 1.

The city administration has yet to approve the fare. After the meeting, city secretary Saefullah reported the minutes to Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan and held a press conference on Monday evening.

Saefullah told the press that there was still room for further discussions with the council speakership this week. “We want all decisions to be based on logic and careful and proper calculations for the sake of public transportation users in the long run,” Saefullah said.

Previously, the city administration proposed fares of Rp 10,000 per 10 km per person for the MRT and Rp 6,000 per 10 km per person for the Kelapa Gading-Velodrome LRT. MRT’s Phase 1 comprises 13 stations, with distances between stations ranging from 800 meters and 2.2 km. In total, MRT’s Phase 1 covers a distance of 15.7 km. Saefullah had asked for a 25-percent discount for MRT fares up to June but this was rejected by the city council.

Saefullah said that the city administration aimed for an affordable fare in the interest of region-owned companies.

“This is related to maintenance and other operational costs of the MRT and the LRT. We have made a table of detailed fares for each station. We must not be hasty. There is still room for the executive and the legislative to talk more about this as we don’t want such a good transportation mode to have [negative] implications in the long run,” he said.

Once an agreement is reached between the city administration and council, a gubernatorial regulation on fare policy will be issued.

City council commission C head Santoso at first rejected the fare. “We want the city administration and [PT MRT Jakarta] to detail the operational costs and what the fare subsidy will be used for. We don’t want the subsidy to burden the city budget. Besides, if we want to discuss integrated fare policy, we need to involve [Transjakarta bus rapid transit operator] PT Transportasi Jakarta, which manages a transportation mode under [one-fare public transit scheme] JakLingko,” he explained.

Target passengers

Council Nasdem Party faction head Bestari Barus said that the MRT fare should not burden the people. The fare must be adjusted so that private vehicle users will switch to the MRT. “We must be clear on who the MRT’s target passengers are. If we want to implement an integrated fare, the infrastructure must be prepared,” he said.

PT MRT Jakarta president director William P Sabandar said that the set fare would not burden the MRT’s operations as there would be a government subsidy. He said that the company and the city administration’s proposed fare was based on an assessment of target passengers’ financial capacity.

Separately, Jakarta Governor Anies said that he planned to propose an integrated fare for all of the city’s public transportation modes. This is to enable passengers to pay a single fare to use all modes available under the JakLingko scheme.

PT Transportasi Jakarta president director Agung Wicaksono was reluctant to talk about the integrated fare. “However, we’re preparing several integrated bus stops, including Tosari, Lebak Bulus and CSW-ASEAN, which will be completed this year,” he said.

Improved JakLingko

JakLingko’s development is intended as a significant help for passengers to switch to rail-based transportation like the MRT. Arul Setyadi, 28, of Ragunan, South Jakarta, used the MRT to go to his office in Setiabudi for the first time on Monday morning.

“There was no hassle. The JAK45 Ragunan-Lebak Bulus public minivan went straight to Lebak Bulus station. It was free because I showed my JakLingko card,” Arul said.

PT Transportasi Jakarta director of service and development Achmad Izzul Waro said that more than 250,000 JakLingko cards had been sold. JakLingko works with nine transportation service operators with a total of 700 vehicles. Residents without the JakLingko cards have experienced difficulties in accessing the services, which prioritize cashless payment.

(HLN/DVD/E20/E22)

Editor:

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