The Indonesian Ombudsman's Findings About The 2024 Eid Homecoming Bus Ticket Prices: Up To 100 Percent

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

The Indonesian Ombudsman highlighted that the price of bus tickets during the Lebaran 2024 homecoming period had increased by 100 percent or twice the normal price.

RI Ombudsman member Hery Susanto revealed that the increase in bus ticket prices was due to the absence of tariff arrangements. The tariff regulated by the government through the stipulation of the upper limit rate only applies to the economic class.

"The next problem is the ticket price. The current regulations only regulate the upper limit for economic class bus tickets," said Hery in the agenda of submitting the 2024 Eid Homecoming Monitoring Results Report which was monitored online, Monday, May 27.

Hery assessed that economy class buses tend to be provided to operate for close range. Meanwhile, for long distances such as the Lebaran 2024 homecoming using non-economic class buses, such as businesses or executives.

"In fact, some bus POs no longer provide economic classes, in general economy class buses are only provided for close range. People prefer non-economic class buses compared to economy class buses," he said.

With this tendency, there is flexibility from the Otobus Company (PO) which regulates prices during the Eid homecoming period. As a result, the price of bus tickets has doubled.

"During Lebaran homecoming, non-economic bus ticket prices experienced a significant increase of up to 100 percent. However, there was no regulation on the upper limit for buses with non-economic classes. Thus, the ups and downs of non-economic bus ticket prices were left to market mechanisms," he said.

The Indonesian Ombudsman has completed the results of monitoring during the 2024 Lebaran homecoming. Based on the results of the report, a number of problems were found in the implementation of homecoming with the bus fleet.

According to Hery, his party found more problems with bus and sea transportation. Meanwhile, the rail and air transportation sector tends to have no problems during the Lebaran 2024 homecoming period.

"In the conclusion of the related findings, I have to speak openly that there are many of these findings in land and sea transportation. If the air is practically smooth, I see that the trains are good. Only two (transport modes), namely buses and sea transportation and inter-island crossings," he said.

Based on the results of monitoring, many buses enter and leave the terminal but no physical conditions are checked for buses and complete vehicle administration by transportation officers.

He added that the ramp check is often carried out when the bus is full of passengers. Thus, ramp check activities are not carried out optimally.

"No monitoring mechanism is implemented effectively to ensure that buses with record findings of ramp checks make improvements. In fact, there is no monitoring that ensures buses with non-roadworthy categories do not operate," he explained.

In addition, said Hery, there are problems related to the lack of facilities and infrastructure at several bus terminals, such as directional instructions, waiting rooms, access for people with disabilities and inadequate lactation spaces.

Related to this, Hery admitted that there are several terminals that have not provided Health Service Posts. In addition, activities to raise and lower passengers occur outside the terminal.

"This is experienced in several provinces outside Java, such as Lampung and North Sumatra. In addition, tariffs are still found in the use of toilets at the Bus terminal," he said.

Finally, continued Hery, there has been no establishment of a joint homecoming post and complaint numbers at several terminals. The posts consist of ministries/agencies/agencies at the central and regional levels to facilitate and integrate the handling of Eid homecoming.

"Based on the monitoring of the homecoming survey team, in general, the homecoming post is available at the bus terminal with officers from various agencies, both from the transportation, security, cantibmas and health sectors. However, there are still terminals that are not equipped with joint posts and complaint numbers," he added.