Jakarta Transportation

Moving around Jakarta is a real challenge for tourists, so prepare in advance for difficulties even at the stage of choosing a place for a hotel. Immediately try to choose such a location in order to be as close as possible to the places and attractions of interest to you, or to transport hubs. Learn more about choosing a hotel location in Jakarta and the districts here.

The city is considered one of the busiest transport in the world, traffic jams are everywhere and always, so take more time to travel, especially during peak hours from 16:30 to 20:00 on weekdays. If you need to get there the fastest, then it's better to use a motorcycle taxi: it's twice as fast as cars, and twice as cheap.

Grab Motorcycle Taxi in Jakarta

You can also travel by regular taxi, city trains, buses, and in the future (approximately in 2020) the metro will also work here. For more information about each way to travel around Jakarta, see below. For how to get from Jakarta Airport to the city, see here.

On foot

There are few conditions for walking in Jakarta, everything is built up and blocked, there are very few sidewalks and pedestrian crossings. In addition, the city is very large, you can move on foot only within the districts. Where there are sidewalks, they are crowded with merchants' shops or motorcycles, and in order to pass, you still have to go out onto the roadway. The zone, more or less adapted for walking and interesting for tourists, is located in the center around Independence Square, as well as in the north in the historical center of the city around Fatahilla Square. On Sundays, from 06:00 to 11:00, the center is closed to motor vehicles.

A street in Jakarta

Taxi and motorcycle taxi

Car taxi in the city is very common, it is inexpensive. Most cars work on the meter, but check about the meter's serviceability before traveling, so as not to be deceived. Most often, cars without meters "hunt" tourists at the airport, at train stations and near tourist attractions. A trip without a meter will always cost you more. To find out if the meters will take you or not, ask the driver "Argo?" before boarding, and if you hear "No" or "Tidak" in response, it's better to look for another car.

The prices for the landmark are as follows: landing and the first kilometer from 6500 rupees (0.39 USD, see Indonesian currency and exchange rate), and then 4000 rupees per kilometer (0.24 USD). That is, a trip of 3 kilometers, for example, will cost about one dollar.

Jakarta Taxi

The most popular and decent carrier company is Blue Bird and its "daughter" Pusaka (blue cars), also a proven taxi Silver Bird (black), and an expensive Express Group taxi. But there are also fakes for them, very similar in coloring and color of the car, but they are easy to distinguish if you carefully look at the spelling of the name on the car.

Blue Bird has a My Blue Bird mobile application for ordering cars, and you can set the point where you need to go right away, then you will find out the cost. If you don't want to install the app, you can also place an order on the site https://reservation.bluebirdgroup.com/.

The motorcycle taxi in Jakarta is called Ojerk. Trips on them are quite extreme and unsafe, so use them in extreme cases when you need to get somewhere urgently. They are cheaper than a car ride, but at a fixed price. Find out the price in advance, and you can bargain a little, because foreigners are called prices higher than locals.

To use a taxi or motorcycle taxi, it is better to connect the Internet to your smartphone (see cellular communication and Internet in Indonesia), and install the Go-Jek or Grab applications (Uber does not work in Indonesia). The most popular Go-Jek application is available for download for free, but it only works on the latest versions of mobile OS, and for some reason does not support the old ones, so it's better to try installing it at home in advance. Grab also works great, besides it is more versatile, since it works in other Asian countries as well. After installation, you will need to register using a Facebook account or a SIM card.

Grab Motorcycle Taxi in Jakarta

Knock-knock

Three–wheeled cars here are called Bajaj (Bajaj), but recently they have also been called tuk-tuk in the Thai manner. Suitable for a comfortable trip of two people, but I can fit up to five. Prices for tourists are inflated as entertainment. Locals pay for a short trip from 4000 rupees (less than half a dollar). The price must be negotiated before the trip.

Tuk-tuk in Jakarta

Buses

The city has a system of bus routes Transjakarta Busway, regular city buses, and special tourist buses.

• Transjakarta Busway

  This is a modern system with new air-conditioned buses that move in dedicated lanes. The system is based on the metro principle: you enter the zone, take buses that move along the corridors (analogous to metro lines), transfer from bus to bus if necessary, and only exit the zone at the station you need. The payment is fixed for the entire trip, it is only 2000 rupees from 5 am to 19 pm, and 3500 from 19:00 to 23:00. you can view the routes on the online map - http://transjakarta.co.id/peta-rute/.

  Which is inconvenient, for travel you first need to purchase an electronic card for 40,000 rupees, of which 20,000 can be used for travel. It's impossible to just come to the bus stop and buy a ticket. There are people on duty at the entrances to the stops, who sometimes let tourists through for a one-time fee on their tickets, and sometimes do not let them through, if they are lucky.

  In general, the use of the Transjakarta Busway, despite the apparent convenience, is quite problematic for tourists. The system is very confusing: buses of different corridors stop at the same stop at different exits; the approaches to the stops themselves are very confusing; none of the locals can help, because they either don't know the routes themselves or don't understand English. In addition, during peak hours, buses and stops are packed, the passages to the stops are very narrow.

  Jakarta Transjakarta Bus

• City buses

  These buses do not move in dedicated lanes, and like all other vehicles, they are stuck in traffic jams. There are large buses, air-conditioned and not, minibuses. The fare costs from 4000 to 10000 rupees per trip, regardless of the distance. Payment is made to the conductor or driver. It is very difficult to understand the intricacies of their routes, there are hundreds of them here, so there is no great sense for tourists to use this transport, especially since all popular places can be reached by other means of transport.

  Jakarta City Bus

• Tourist buses

  To attract tourists to Jakarta, special tourist buses have been launched, which are still free of charge. These are double-decker buses with air conditioning and an English-language information system. You can get on these buses for free at their stops, get to where you need to go, see the sights, and then get on them again. The routes are laid near the main city attractions.

Trains

Instead of the subway in Jakarta, there is still a system of ground commuter trains, an analogue of our electric trains. It is called Commuterline or KRL. This is not a very convenient way to get around the city, but it can be useful if you need to move from one end of the city to the other, for example.

Jakarta City Train

Trains do not stop at the main railway station of the city of Gambir in the center. If you are staying in this area, then you need Gondangdia or Juanda stations. There are still quite a few stations in the city, but the most useful for tourists are these:

• Gondangdia, code - GDD (station on the map)– the closest station to Jl Jaksa Street (an area with inexpensive hostels)
• Juanda, code - JUA (station on the map) is the closest station to the main city station Gambir and in the city center
• Jakarta, code - JAKK (station on the map) – located in the historical district of Kota
• Bogor, code - BOO (station on the map) – located in the city Bogor, famous for its botanical garden.
• Cawang Station (station on the map) is the closest station to Halim Perdanakusuma Airport. It is convenient to save on a taxi, i.e. to get to it first, and then from it to the airport by taxi, well, or in the opposite direction as well.

Interactive commuter train map linked to Google map https://jakartabytrain.com/

The fare depends on the number of stations, and starts from 2,000 rupees for the first three stations (about $ 0.15), and then 500 for every three stations. There is a one-time ticket for a trip (THB) and a card for several trips (KMT). A deposit of 10,000 rupees is added to the cost of a one-time ticket, which is returned at the ticket office after the end of the trip in exchange for the used ticket.

One-time tickets are sold at each station in the terminals, payment in cash. There is an English language in the machines, a schematic map is presented, everything is generally clear, change is issued. But for payment it is better to have small bills, which, by the way, can be exchanged here at a special cash desk for exchange. Specify the destination station in the terminal, and after payment you will receive a one-time ticket, which will take you through the turnstile to the station to the trains. Then follow to the desired station with transfers (everything is like in the subway), and exit also through the turnstiles on the card. If you try to get off at the wrong station where the ticket was purchased, the turnstiles will not let you out. after exiting at the desired station, the card is inserted into the same terminal, and a deposit of 10,000 rupees is returned to you. There are no deposit refund machines at some stations, and the money is returned at a special cash desk.

Ticket vending machines

Metro

There is no subway in Jakarta, but it is being built. The dates of its opening are constantly being postponed, now postponed to 2020.