For many years, the first word most foreign visitors learned upon moving to Jakarta was macet, traffic jam.
Traffic was so bad that transport experts warned in 2013 that if nothing was done, the city could achieve total gridlock, with every part of the city experiencing a traffic jam. In 2014, Jakarta was crowned the world’s most congested city by the Stop-Start Index and a year later was ranked far below other Asian cities on livability by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Ten years later, Jakarta has the world’s largest and one of the most used bus rapid transit (BRT) systems. The old, crowded diesel commuter trains, famous for allowing passengers to ride on the roofs, are now electrified, air conditioned, and run on regular schedules linking the suburbs to the city center. There are multiple subway and light rail lines crisscrossing the city. The transformation has been remarkable: in 2015, less than 20% of residents were within walking distance of transit. Now, nearly 90% of the city has access to BRT or trains.
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Just over a year after Jokowi took office, Japan and Indonesia signed an agreement to provide a 77 billion Japanese yen (US$623 million) loan to build a mass rapid transit (MRT) line. While the groundwork had been laid over the previous decade, many credited Jokowi with brokering the agreement. The loan had an interest rate of just 0.1%. Japan would also provide technical expertise for the building process; Japanese train systems are built quickly and efficiently at low cost, and Indonesia hoped to learn from them. Having Japanese and central government oversight would also hopefully reduce corruption.
It was a big risk. Indonesia only had a decades-old colonial era domestic railway network and little rail or railway manufacturing capability. There was no evidence that the country had the capability to implement such a large-scale project, and many expected it to either go over budget, or be heavily delayed. After all, strange pillars still dotted the Jakarta skyline from the last time the city had attempted a similar project. In 2003, construction started on a monorail project in Kuningan business district. That project never got beyond basic pre-construction, the funding either wasted or, as many Indonesians believe, stolen.
This time, it would be different. Japan would play a role in basic design, construction, and introduction of transportation systems, including trains, signals, and gate systems, as well as their operation and maintenance.
But Japanese contractors were insistent that, while they might build the railway, it was up to Indonesia to run it. Much of the technology would come from Japanese companies like Sumitomo and Nippon Sharyo, but construction, operations, and maintenance would all have to be done by Indonesian companies or the government. “In the future, it will be the local staff of Jakarta MRT who will have to manage this railroad. The Japanese way of doing things will not always be applicable here. For these reasons, we placed an importance on their autonomy when transferring the technology and operation know-how to the local staff,” says Mariko Utsunomiya from Japan International Consultants for Transportation.
For the most part, the MRT was built underground or alongside existing large thoroughfares, minimizing the need for expensive land acquisition. When land was needed, the project used international standards to determine fair compensation and ensure fair process. Still, issues around some stations, particularly in South Jakarta, did result in the deadline being pushed back from 2018 to 2019.
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While the MRT was still being built, the central government also approved a plan to have the state railway operator build two Light Rapid Transit (LRT) lines using domestic trains and technology. With knowledge gained from working with Japan, the Indonesian government would try to build its own infrastructure. The first line opened in 2023, slightly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic but on budget.
The success of the LRT and Phase 1 of the MRT has opened the door to more international investment. MRT Phase 2, also funded by Japan, is under construction and should open in late 2026.
JICA and ADB are funding the MRT Phase 3 East-West Line, and a South Korea consortium, led by the Korea Overseas Infrastructure & Urban Development Corporation, Korea National Railway and Samsung, will build Phase 4 for 21 trillion Indonesian rupiah (US$1.9 billion). By 2045, if all goes to plan, there will be 10 LRT and 4 MRT lines with over 100 miles (160 km) of track added to the network.
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Despite making remarkable improvements in the last decade, Jakarta’s public transit still isn’t enough. The city has recently overtaken Tokyo as the world’s largest city, with a metro population of over 41 million people, and it is still growing rapidly. It is projected to add another 10 million people in the next 25 years.
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This has meant that despite the growth in transit ridership, there are still more cars in Greater Jakarta now than in 2019, when the MRT opened. Ride-hailing apps have also exploded in popularity; GoJek and Grab now provide on-demand motorcycle and rideshare to millions of Jakartans everyday. The sheer number of them means that fares are cheap — often just a little more than the train for a ride that requires no walking or transfers.
This means one of the core drivers of the transit development push — air pollution — has actually worsened. Danny Djarum, an Air Quality Senior Research Lead at WRI Indonesia says that PM 2.5, the measurement of inhalable airborne particulate matter, is now eight to ten times higher than World Health Organization guidelines. “We’re still one of the top 5 most polluted cities in the world,” he said.
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