Since its launch in 2008, Trans Jogja bus becomes an alternative public transport which is preferred by community. This can be seen from the increased income that exceeds the target from 15 billion to 15.3 billion rupiah in 2009.
The statement was delivered by Rizki Budi Utomo, ST, MT from Department of Transportation of Yogyakarta in a discussion Discussing Trans Jogja Bus, on Thursday (28/4) at Center for Transportation and Logistics Studies UGM. Rizki said that Trans Jogja UPTD data of Department of Transportation,
Communication and Information of Yogyakarta province also showed revenue in 2010 reached 17,498,1010 rupiah or up 14% from the previous year.
The presence of Trans Jogja bus service is intended to provide better and sustainable public transport. This transport mode is one of excellent programs of Yogyakarta Province which is transportation urban renewal program, as well as restructuring management and system of deposit-based public transport into purchasing service system from the government. "The Trans Jogja based on the 'buy the service' is expected to provide public service, especially better transport for the community. About 200 units of Trans Jogja buses will be provided to replace the city transportation in the future. A number of bus stops will be built, too," he said.
Trans Jogja is presented, according to Rizki, based on the poor public transport services and declining urban bus performance. "Load factor for urban buses in 2005 was very low, about 27.22%," said the man who also works as a lecturer in Department of Civil Engineering of Islamic University of Indonesia.
Although getting positive response from the community, the result of a survey conducted by Department of Transportation of Yogyakarta recently shows that there is dissatisfaction of passengers on the Trans Jogja services, particularly waiting time (timeliness and schedule) and travel time of Trans Jogja. "Only 27% of respondents who felt the bus service in terms of waiting time was good, while 20% said enough, and the remaining 55% stated less good, while for the travel time some 47% said less good, 11% said good enough, and 42 percent said good," he explained.
Rizki said further that the absence of a special track for Trans Jogja becomes one cause of the lengthy travel time. "Trans Jogja is not like Trans Jakarta that uses a special lane. Trans Jogja uses the common lane together with other transport modes, no freeway, so they cannot be faster than other public transport," he said.
Currently, the Department of Transportation of Yogyakarta Province provides 54 Trans Jogjabuses, 6 of them are reserve buses. The buses operate in three main corridors, each with two tracks shuttle on a 33-36 km long route. The number of shelters and ticketing machines is 76 units, consisting of 34 in the city and 42 in the province.