Direct Transportation to Airport: one solution for traffic in Jakarta

Every year around December-February, Jakartans are warned for flooding.  When I was still living in the Cempaka Putih area, I’ve never seen my fridge and gas stove downstairs during these months.  Once or twice during this month, the filthy water comes into the house without early notice, just entering the house whenever it feels like.  We will be listening to the news for when the watergate in Bogor will be opened, which means Jakarta will be flooded.  We will not be working because we have to clean the house.  The smell stays for weeks, the stain on the wall was forever, never had a nice furniture.

There are worse cases, of course, where people just accept the fact of this yearly event and live with it.  What cannot be tolerable, in my opinion, is the traffic to the airport.  If you are a Jakartan, how many times you experienced stuck in the traffic or missed the plane due to the traffic?  How many times the tol road was closed due to the flood, or a broken dam, which made you stuck in the airport?  Which in turn, translates to, how many hours you spent circling around to reach home or work?  I’m sure some of you have paid ridiculous price for a taxi to get to the center of the city?  And probably been blackmailed for more money in the middle of the traffic?

The Sukarno-Hatta or Cengkareng airport has become a vital landmark.  Which airport isn’t (which makes me wonder, why it was decided to be located at the current place)?  Thousands of people depends on the airlines everyday, to go to other cities or outside the country.  One would assume hundreds of thousands of dollars are thrown away whenever the flood hits the Cengkareng toll road.  Hundreds of business decisions being halted.  Hundreds of family in waiting for their loved ones to  safely arrive home.  With business rising in Singapore, for example, lots of people commute from Singapore-Jakarta, often, one-day business trips.  This makes the access to the airport very crucial, in which, the government has to put lots of thoughts in it (still haven’t seen any concrete work or plan by Fauzi Bowo due to flood..hello…?).

This is when I think the Malaysians excel than the Indonesians.  In KL, there is a metro that takes you from the airport to the Central Station in the middle of the city, which is about 30 minutes ride, free from traffic.  It also at a reasonable price.  That way, people just go to the Central Station and catch the metro to the airport.  No hassle driving into the airport.  This is also true in London, which costs an arm and leg to pay for the yellow cab to Heathrow.  This traffic-free metro is a great invention for people to be able to catch their plane on timely manner.

I think Jakarta should have this kind of transportation system.  With lots of cheap airlines available these days, more people choose to travel by airplane.  It is only reasonable to have a support system for this high demand.   For example, it will be useful to have a monorail, or metro that can directly take people from the center of the city to the airport without depending on the toll road.  Say, probably one station at the business district in Sudirman or Blok M, and one at Thamrin.  The metro can take people every 30 minutes during peak hours.  Wouldn’t this be one solution for the traffic in Jakarta, not only during rainy season but also in general?  This way, the cars going towards and from the airport will be eliminated from the cause-of-traffic in Jakarta. 

 At this moment, there are some busses that takes people to the airport but still depends on the condition of the traffic and the toll road.   There is Damri busses that takes you from the Blok M area to the airport.  Or, if I’m not mistaken, from the Sultan Hotel.  Although convenient, they still depend on the toll road.

I wonder if this has been thought over by the Jakarta governor.  As I’m typing this, I’m wondering about the monorail project (quo vadis, monorail?).  Probably the funding for the monorail project could be shifted to this airport transportation system project, if there will be any? 

For this matter, I have to say the Malaysians excel from the Indonesians.