Buses

For decades the bus was transport for Indonesians who could not afford a motorcycle. That era is ending. For most foreign residents the default is now a ride-hailing app, Gojek or Grab, which handle door-to-door trips by car or motorbike and settle the fare by QRIS or e-wallet.

Getting around the city

Jakarta runs an integrated, cashless network: the TransJakarta busway (opened in 2004, long past shiny and new), the MRT, and two LRT lines. Plan journeys and track vehicles in the JakLingko or TransJakarta app, or in Google Maps, and pay by tapping an e-money card or scanning a QR code. A single TransJakarta trip is a flat Rp3,500; a combined multi-modal journey is capped at Rp10,000. The old problem of unreadable destination signs is largely solved by the phone in your pocket.

Minibus and minivan options

The angkot and mikrolet minibuses, in their colour-coded livery, are in steep decline, squeezed by ride-hailing. In Jakarta many have been absorbed into the free Mikrotrans feeder service, though you still tap a JakLingko card to board. On informal angkot elsewhere, expect no ticket and pay cash in small notes.

Intercity buses

Between cities, classes run from government-priced ekonomi up through eksekutif, super eksekutif and sleeper suites. The gap is now tens or hundreds of thousands of rupiah, not the couple of thousand it once was. Book through an app such as Traveloka or RedBus; fares can roughly double around the Lebaran mudik exodus.

Contributor: Jakartass

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