According to the 2013 Transportation Research and Development Agency survey, when the Jabodetabek Commuter Line fare was set at one price and relatively cheap, the transportation cost of Jabodetabek KRL users was still 32 percent of their monthly income. At that time, the last-mile transportation services were not as good as they are now. These days, every Commuter Line station in Jakarta has been integrated with the Trans Jakarta Bus and Jak Lingko. Unfortunately, the first-mile service has not changed much, and transportation to the station tends to be scarce. There has been no significant improvement, except for the Trans Pakuan Bus in Bogor and the Tayo Bus in Tangerang. Public transportation in cities like Bogor and Tangerang must be created for Bekasi City, Bekasi Regency, Depok City, Tangerang Regency, Bogor Regency and South Tangerang City.
We should not merely focus on the Jabodetabek Commuter fare, but we also need to think about how to plan so that the public’s transportation total cost can be less than 10 percent of monthly income. France and Singapore have been able to suppress the cost to 3 percent and China to 7 percent.
In a 2018 study conducted by the Directorate-General of Railways, 5 percent of Jabodetabek Commuter weekend users work on Saturdays and 3 percent on Sundays. The rest of the weekend users traveled for social purposes, such as tourism, visiting relatives, seminar and going to the shopping malls. In the same year, an effective subsidy mechanism was proposed for Jabodetabek Commuter users. However, the Government had not taken the matter seriously at that time. It would be good to continue and intensify the study now so that the policy can be implemented at the right time, after introducing and promoting it to the community.
In a year, weekends and holidays in Indonesia may reach 100 days in total. If the subsidies are reduced, it can boost cost efficiency by a third. The saved budget can be allocated to subsidize feeder public transportation from residential areas to stations.