MRT Boss Assures No More Ticketing Problem in May

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Jakarta will run its operation with normal price ticket starting in May. MRT Jakarta CEO William Sabandar reassured that all technical problems occurred in April would not repeat in the future. 

He said it based on the deadline set by Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, saying that the trouble in automated ticket machine should be resolved by May. "Definitely [it wouldn’t be a problem]," William said when contacted by Tempo Saturday, April 6.

The technical problem is that the electronic money issued by banks could not be read at both the entrance and exit payment gates. Several passengers could not enter or exit the stations and it created a long line, forcing the officers to open the gate manually.

William monitored MRT Bundaran HI Station yesterday afternoon until evening and said that he did not find the same problem at the entrance gate. William sent video showing the easy access of passengers entering the station.

"The system is new, no wonder it experienced trouble at firsts. But today, everything’s going well," William said last night, April 5.

MRT Jakarta found that the trouble at the entrance ticket gate as the main issue. It occurred since MRT started its commercial operation on Monday, April 1. Jakarta provincial government gave a 50 percent discount for MRT ticket for a month in April.

Another problem occurred in MRT Lebak Bulus Station where the ticket’s vending machine could not be operated. Based on the information collected from MRT Jakarta, the ticketing problem often found in Lebak Bulus and Bundaran HI Stations.

Lani Diana Wijaya