Ministry Of Transportation Starts Considering Feeder Subsidies To Reduce Transportation Fees

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) considers providing subsidy funds for feeder transportation (feeders) so that people can further suppress the expenditure of daily transportation costs.

Director General Of Multimodal Transportation Integration Of The Ministry Of Transportation (Kemenhub) Risal Wasal

"Earlier, we discussed how the first mile (first point) and last mile (final point) cost people travel high, whether because we subsidized it not to feeders, we discussed it further," said Director General of Multimodal Transportation Integration of the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) Risal Wasal quoting Antara.

"Whether the feeder should or it's time for us to talk about it, so that the public's costs can be cheaper," he added.

Recently, talks about the high transportation costs of people who are communicating using public transportation from house to place of work in the Jakarta area and the buffer cities, are widely discussed in cyberspace.

Based on the analysis of the transportation of Indonesia's FACTA, Depok and Bekasi, they are cities with the most expensive public transportation costs in the Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi (Bodetabek) areas, which are above Rp. 1 million per month.

Furthermore, Risal said there are still a number of challenges to realizing integrated and cheap intermodal transportation for the public.

Some of them are accessibility and connectivity, service network integration, spatial planning and transportation, tariff and financing systems, information systems, and institutions.

For this reason, Risal assessed that the government is tasked with being able to provide recommendations for the public regarding the option of integrated transportation modes to run safely, comfortably and affordablely.

"The problem is not only lowering the tariff (transport mode), but how (the government can also help) increase income, support seamless public transportation without obstacles and disturbances," said Risal.

Agreeing, transportation observer from the Catholic University of Soegijapranata Djoko Setijowarno said the government must have a more supportive policy of public needs.

"From the mode, it's quite cheap, there are enough supporting facilities, such as in Jakarta, that's good. But, in the regions, there are many city transportation that don't exist. So, this must be considered," said Djoko.