Gov’t Explores O-Bahn as Alternative Mass Transportation

O-Bahn in a country

Ministry of Transportation is currently reviewing an alternative choice of urban mass transportation called O-Bahn, which is a combination of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and Light Rapid Transit (LRT).

“Road infrastructure is getting better. Thus, we need to minimize the use of private vehicles, through the optimization of mass transportation,” Director General of Land Transportation Budi Setiyadi said in a discussion, in Jakarta, Sunday (23/6).

The Ministry, Budi added, is working hard to optimize the infrastructure and urban mass transportation in order to reduce the use of private vehicles that have resulted in congestion. Congestion has become a serious problem in Indonesian urban areas.

The Government has built various types of urban mass transportation, such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), Light Rapid Transit (LRT), and Mass Rapid Transit (MRT).

“In 2019, Ministry of Transportation would repair all public transportation facilities. Also, we would improve our responses since some major cities in Indonesia have started to experience congestion,” Budi stated.

On the same occasion, Director General of Railways of Ministry of Transportation Zulfikri said that along with the development of technology, currently there are various modes of mass transportation that can be developed, such as O-Bahn which can be built at a lower cost compared to LRT, albeit more expensive than BRT.

“The capacity is greater than BRT, but smaller than LRT. The budget is indeed bigger than BRT because we have to build several lanes,” said Zulfikri.

The implementation of O-Bahn, according to him, might be carried out outside of Jakarta. He assessed the need for further study and thorough discussion with Regional Governments as well as stakeholders.

For the records, the O-Bahn is part of the fast bus transit system, which combines the concepts of BRT and LRT in the same lane. The bus has a guide wheel next to the bus front tire, which integrates with the steering wheel of the front wheel. So, when the bus enters the O-Bahn lane, the driver does not need to control the direction of the bus because the guide wheel will direct the bus in the direction of the railroad track and prevent the bus from falling into the gap on the track. This system was first applied in the City of Essen, Germany and is currently being implemented in various countries such as Australia and Japan. (Ministry of Transportation PR/ES)

Translated by : Fairuzzamani Inayatillah
Edited by : Mia M. Bonaedy