Increase The Total Passengers Of The South Sumatra LRT, Minister Of Transportation Budi Asks To Increase Feeder Transportation

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi (Photo: Public Relations of the Ministry of Transportation)

The Ministry of Transportation continues to increase the number of passengers (ridership) for mass transportation. One of them, the South Sumatra Light Train (LRT Sumsel) in the city of Palembang.

Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi said to increase the number of passengers on the South Sumatra LRT, feeder or feeder transportation must be increased.

"This LRT must have a lot of feeder transportation. So far, the collaboration between the Ministry of Transportation and the Palembang City Government to provide feeder transportation is quite good. In the future, we will cooperate with the private sector," he said in an official statement, Sunday, February 19.

Budi said, one of the national banking companies has stated that it will participate in providing feeder transportation services for the South Sumatra LRT.

"There will be donations from Bank Mandiri. Through their CSR program, they will provide feeder transportation, but the shape is unique, such as Jeepney feeder transportation in the city of Manila, Philippines," he said.

Unique Feeder Transport

Furthermore, Budi wants this feeder transportation to be unique. That way, it can become a new icon of the city of Palembang that attracts the attention of the public.

"Palembang is already famous for its delicious food, and now we have to make a unique feeder transportation in order to provide a memorable experience for people in Palembang and immigrants," he said.

Budi hopes that within the next 6 months, the addition of unique feeder transportation services in the city of Palembang can be implemented.

That way, continued Budi, it is hoped that it will increase the interest of the people in the city of Palembang and its surroundings, to use mass transportation.

As stated by Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the Government is committed to prioritizing the use of mass transportation in urban areas, as is the case in the city of Palembang.

For this reason, the development of mass transportation such as the South Sumatra LRT, which is the first LRT in Indonesia, must continue.

The city of Palembang is one of the pilot cities for the development of urban mass transportation, because it has quite complete mass transportation services ranging from buses, LRT, angkots, to river and lake transportation, which are interconnected.

Since its launch in 2018, the development of the South Sumatra LRT has been extraordinary. In 2019, the number of passengers reached 2.6 million people. It had decreased in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only 1.5 million passengers," he said.

Then, said Budi, in 2022 it will jump to more than 3 million. In 2023, we hope to increase significantly to 4 million people per year.

Currently, the number of LRT Sumsel (Angkot Feeder Musi Emas) feeders that have operated is 51 units, which are spread across seven routes and operate from morning to evening from 05.00 WIB to 19.16 WIB.

Feeder transportation currently has seven travel routes, namely corridor 1 (Talang Kelapa-Talang Badan) and corridor 2 (Asrama Haji-Sematang Borang) Corridor 3 (Asrama Haji-Talang Betutu), Corridor 4 (State Polrestabes-Perumahan OPI), Corridor 5 (State Station DJKA-Tegal Binanggun), Corridor 6 (RSUD-Unitary Station), and Corridor 7 (Bukit-Bukit Stadium Cambodia via Sriwijaya Station).