Jakarta Transportations

Once you are in Jakarta, you will find many alternatives of public transportations to wandering around. Mass transporatation within Jakarta are bus and train. Then followed by mikrolet and KWK with maksimum capacity of 12 people (can be more if the driver desparates to get more passanger). For short to medium distant, , bemo, ojek and becak is worth to try, at least for life time experience. The more convinient is of course taxi or rent a car. We describe more of those below. There are railways throughout Jakarta; however, they are inadequate in providing transportation for the citizens of Jakarta. In peak hours, the number of passengers simply overloads the capacity provided. The railroad tracks connect Jakarta to its neighboring cities: Depok and Bogor to the south, Tangerang and Serpong to the west, and Bekasi, Karawang, and Cikampek to the east. The major rail stations are Gambir, Jatinegara, Manggarai, Tanah Abang and Jakarta Kota. Buses and busway takes less than half an hour to traverse a route which would normally take more than an hour during peak hours. Construction of the 2nd and 3rd corridor routes of the busway was completed in 1999, serving the route from Pulogadung to Kalideres. Busway serving both corridor routes has been operational since January 2002. Other public transportation besides bus are mikrolet, bemo, bajaj,becak, delman and many more. Despite the presence of many large, wide roads Jakarta suffers from congestion due to heavy traffic, especially in the central business district. To reduce traffic jams, some major roads in Jakarta have a 'three in one' rule during rush hours, first introduced in 1992, prohibiting passengers on certain roads. In 2005, this rule covered the Gatot Subroto Road. Jakarta's road is notorious for the behaviour of the traffic; the rules of the road are broken with impunity as a simple bribe of a few US dollars will simply make all one's legal problems disappear. Furthermore, in recent years the number of motorcycles on the streets has being growing almost exponentially, ensuring many a problem due to ill-disciplined motorcyclists. Jakarta's transportation also depends on Priok. The outer ring road is now being constructed and is partly operational from Cilincing-Cakung-Pasar Rebo-Pondok Pinang-Daan Mogot-Cengkareng. A toll road connects Jakarta to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in the north of Jakarta. Also connected via toll road is the port of Merak and Tangerang to the west and Bekasi, Cibitung and Karawang, Purwakarta and eventually to Bandung to the east. Two lines of the Jakarta Monorail are under construction: the green line serving Semanggi-Casablanca-Kuningan-Semanggi and the blue line serving Kampung Melayu-Casablanca-Tanah Abang-Roxy. In addition, there are plans for a two-line subway (MRT) system, with a north-south line between Kota and Fatmawati, with connections to both monorail lines; and an east-west line, which will connect with the north-south line at the Sawah Besar station. The government is also considering waterbus ferries as a cheaper means of transportation along the canals in Jakarta. The primary airport for Jakarta is Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, one of Indonesia's two major international air gateways. Other airport is Halim Perdana Kusuma. Island hopping is best done by airplane. Garuda, Sempati, Merpati, and Bouraq are the four major domestic carriers. Garuda serves the primary cities (and international destinations) as well as Sempati, Merpati and Bouraq have their own niche. If you want to fly direct from Bandung to Denpasar, for example, you have to use Merpati. Using Garuda, you must have a stop over either in Jakarta or in Surabaya .