PORTALJABAR, BANDUNG CITY - The West Java Provincial Government will carry out trials of two Greater Bandung Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors in early 2024.

According to the Head of the West Java Regional Development Planning Agency, Iendra Sofyan, trials of two new corridors will be carried out in the first three months of 2024, including the Cibiru - Kebon Kalapa route and Hall Station - Tegalluar Fast Train Station.

"We will test it in the next three months. We have also taken over the two previous corridors managed by the Ministry of Transportation, namely BEC - Baleendah and Alun-alun Bandung - Cimahi - Padalarang - Fast Train Station," said Iendra at Gedung Sate Bandung, Tuesday (16/ 1/2024).

The addition of two new BRT lines is planned to use electric buses, to attract more public interest in using electric-powered mass transportation.

"We plan to use electric buses, this is an effort to attract interest in using mass transportation, especially those that use electric power," he added.

According to Iendra, the scheme used to operate the Greater Bandung BRT still uses Buy The Service (BTS), as has been done by the Ministry of Transportation so far.

"We still use BTS, so we just have to pay the operator. So our system covers the operator's operational costs, so that tickets to the public remain cheap. Why do we use the BTS scheme, because we don't have a special transportation management agency," he explained.

Iendra emphasized that if the trial results in the first three months of 2024 are successful, then officially the two new BRT corridors will operate starting in the last 3 months of 2024.