Lably
Skip to content

Transjakarta

Bus Rapid Transit system in Jakarta, Indonesia

  • 35 min read
  • 10 chapters
Transjakarta Corridor 2, 2| Pulo Gadung <=> Monas (Monumen Nasional) connects Pulogadung with the National Monument (currently), and it's route traverses several major roads such as Jalan Perint
Sulthan Naufal · CC BY 4.0

Related on Lably

Through Bogotá and Maritime transport

Transjakarta has the world's longest BRT system (251.2 kilometres [156.1 mi] in length), which operates about 5,000 buses, of which 470 are electric. Transjakarta aims to have 50 percent of its fleet be electric buses by 2027. By 2030, the aim is for the entire Transjakarta ecosystem to use electric buses. As of March 2026, it serves an average of 1.4 million passengers daily and covers 92.5% of Jakarta's area.

The system is operated by municipally owned company PT Transportasi Jakarta. However, many of its fleet is operated by private companies alongside the company itself.

History

Transjakarta was conceived to provide a fast, comfortable, and affordable mass transportation system in Jakarta. The proposal for a BRT system was emerged in 2001; Governor of Jakarta at the time, Sutiyoso proposed four mass public transportation modes in Jakarta:

  • Mass-rapid transit (MRT), with the construction of the first line beginning in late 2013 and opening in March 2019.
  • Monorail, which began construction in 2004 but was halted shortly thereafter. The construction was expected to resume in 2013 but was eventually permanently cancelled two years later.
  • Bus rapid transit (BRT), by carrying the concept from the TransMilenio system in Bogotá, Colombia.
  • Water transport (waterway), which was short-lived.

The MRT was considered a long-term goal thanks to its speed and capacity, but it required large foreign investment. At the time, Indonesia lost investor confidence due to concerns about domestic instability in the early 2000s, following the fall of the New Order regime in 1998, so the MRT construction could not be realised. Among those four, the bus rapid transit was considered the most likely to be realised in the near future because it didn't require foreign investment.

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) was an important party accompanying the BRT planning process. The initial concept was created by PT Pamintori Cipta, a transportation consultant who had frequently worked with the Jakarta Office of Transportation (Dinas Perhubungan Provinsi DKI Jakarta). Apart from the private sector, several other parties supported the project, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and University of Indonesia's Center for Transportation Studies (UI–CTS).

The buses were given lanes restricted from other traffic and separated by concrete blocks on the streets that became part of the busway routes. The first Transjakarta line opened to the public on 15 January 2004. It was free to ride for the first two weeks, after which commercial operations started on 1 February 2004.

Currently, Transjakarta has 14 main BRT corridors and 17 cross-corridor BRT services. In addition, there are about 200 non-BRT services that serve beyond the exclusive busway corridors to serve smaller streets as well as neighbouring suburbs. The number of Transjakarta buses has also increased dramatically, from 605 medium-to-large buses in 2015 to about 4,700 in 2026. The fare has remained Rp3,500 (27 US cents) per passenger since operations began. In November 2020, Transjakarta won the 2021 Sustainable Transport Award.

Sign in to keep reading

9 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Transportation