Transjakarta, the first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system in Indonesia, started in 2004. As of February 2012 11 Corridors, with 180 km long are in operation and served by 206 stations and 560 buses, 480 of which run on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
The system currently carries 380,000 passengers daily.However, this is still considered not optimum as there are
some problems which holds back transjakarta’s potential to carry passengers, one of which is the lack of Direct service to serve passengers from the origin “first-mile” to Transjakarta.
Direct Service Concept is introduced to minimize transfer for passengers from the feeder to trunk service. With Direct service concept, transfer time at terminal can be eliminated, which eventually save passenger travel time.
ITDP survey in 2010 revealed that 75% of Transjakarta passengers take medium buses or micro buses to access the Transjakarta system, despite the poor conditions of the buses. From the vehicle registration data source owned by Jakarta Transport Agency (2010), the average age for medium buses are 22 years, whereas 98% of the fleet are above 13 years old (KPMG Analysis of the data).
The fact that these medium buses carry substantial number of passengers to Transjakarta makes the effort to transform medium buses into Transjakarta Direct Service seems relevant and logic. It is estimated that by doing this measure, Transjakarta will have additional passengers by almost 50% of their current ridership.
With Separate Trunk and Feeder Concept. Passengers have to transfer from one service to another at the end terminal. Direct service buses will be allowed to enter Transjakarta lane and stop at the Transjakarta station, ensuring full integration with Transjakarta services.
If implemented, this system wil create the following benefit for Transjakarta:
1. Increase bus frequency on corridor
2. bigger catchment area for Transjakarta
3. adding passengers from direct service