ENDEAVOR
Sonny Coloma
While Filipino commuters wait in long queues and endure a daily workaday grind, Indonesians have a relatively easier time – thanks to TransJakarta, a bus rapid transit (BRT) system established in 2004 to provide a fast public transport system and reduce rush hour traffic.
The buses run in dedicated lanes, or busways, and ticket prices are subsidized by the regional government. As of February 2020, TransJakarta carried an estimated 1.006 million passengers daily. With 4,300 operational buses, it is also the world’s longest BRT system at 251.2 kilometers.
Private sector organizations, are urging the government to fast-track the full development of the nascent EDSA Busway system through public-private partnership or PPP. In a joint statement, they described this as “low hanging fruit for privatization.”
The EDSA Busway system, also known as the EDSA Bus Carousel, was initiated by business and civic leader Eduardo “Eddie” Yap, who is also convener of the Green EDSA Movement, and chair of the infrastructure committee of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP).
Introduced in June 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the busway system carried an average of 325,000 passengers daily in August 2022, even with only 550 buses committed to its operations, compared to the pre-pandemic level of 3,300 buses. The Department of Transportation (DOTr) has also reported that it has reduced the end-to-end travel time on EDSA from Monumento to the Parañaque Integrated Terminal (PTIX) from three hours to only one-and-a-half hours.
These are truly impressive gains that reflect great opportunity for further improvement. Yet, extreme overcrowding in busway stations still persists as many critical components of efficient busway operations are absent or lacking. For more than a year, private sector proponents, such as SM Corp., have been waiting for the issuance of permits for the construction of stations along EDSA.
Eddie Yap tapped former Public Works Secretaries – Jose ‘Ping’ de Jesus, Farrell “Toto” Estuar and Rogelio “Babes” Singson – and former Transportation Undersecretary Glicerio Sicat, to join him in drafting the terms of reference (TOR) for privatization.
The pitch for privatization is an offshoot of a roundtable forum initiated by the Management Association of the Philippines’ (MAP) infrastructure committee. It was participated in by present and former senior government officials as well as private sector representatives from, among others, SM Corp. and Megawide, others, who have been involved in Public-Private Partnership or PPP projects. Most of these were launched and implemented during the administration of then President Benigno S. Aquino III.
According to the privatization proponents, the BRT “has proven to be the most cost effective urban mass transit system in the world.” They note that “it is easy to implement and requires significantly less capital expenditures, while it can provide high efficiency and ridership capacity similar to rail trams with the introduction of the latest technology in commuter transport: high capacity, articulated trackless long bus-trains running on rubber wheels.”
Jakarta’s busway has expanded to cover the mass transportation needs of Indonesia’s metropolitan capital. It has 13 primary routes and 10 cross-corridor routes; 200 more feeder routes serve beyond the exclusive busway corridors and into satellite cities in the Greater Jakarta area, which is similar to the physical features of Metro Manila. From only 605 busies in 2015, the number of buses increased to 4,300 in 2020, thereby expanding capacity to more than a million passengers daily.
Six of the 13 primary routes served by TransJakarta have earned Silver or Bronze rating, while the remaining seven are still rated Basic. This is
according to the BRT Standard, an evaluation tool for BRT systems around the world based on international best practices established by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP).
The ITDP’s identified significant predictors are: “peak-hour speed, peak frequency, the average distance between stations, the length of dedicated busway, passing lanes at BRT station, covered station access, enhanced station environment, pre-board and automated fare collection and fare verification, and network integration.”
Considered by the ITDP as the Gold Standard is the Guangzhou BRT in the People’s Republic of China that began operations in February 2010. It carries more than a million passengers daily with a peak passenger flow of 26,000 passengers per hour per direction. This system prides itself in having the world’s longest BRT stations spanning 260 meters. These stations are configured with bridges that enable a throughput of one bus every 10 seconds or 350 per hour in a single direction.
Our commuters and our country deserve a busway system that is at par with the best in the world. This is the battlecry of Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista: to elevate our public transportation system to global standards – an ideal that could be attained through privatization or through public-private partnership.