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The TransJakarta busway is a complete failure when it comes to easing traffic jams and passengers are often the victims of pickpockets, former Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso said on Thursday.

“I am disappointed. TransJakarta faces so many problems that it is useless having the system at all if improvements cannot be made. It was supposed to ease traffic,” he said at the launch of a new watchdog called Busway Users’ Community.

Governor from 1997 to 2007, the former Army lieutenant general said the current administration, led by his former deputy, Governor Fauzi Bowo, had failed when it came to maintaining the busway system.

Patterned after the TransMilenio busway in Bogota, Colombia, the TransJakarta lanes were introduced by Sutiyoso in January 2004 as part of efforts to ease crippling traffic jams.

TransJakarta has eight dedicated corridors spanning 143.35 kilometers with 426 buses. A daily average of 250,000 people ride the busway, or more than 83 million last year, according to the system’s operator, TransJakarta Busway Management.

“It initially aimed to provide a secure, comfortable and affordable alternative. I see no such thing today,” Sutiyoso said.

The former governor added that passengers often “met with thieves in the crammed, uncomfortable buses.”

“The busway is now useless. Many people drive their cars on the dedicated lane along most of the corridors,” he said.

Sutiyoso said the whole idea of having exclusive lanes for the busway was to ease the horrendous traffic jams in the capital. Today, he added, those lanes are often packed with private vehicles, motorcycles and public minivans.

Amid protests and doubts, Sutiyoso initiated the construction of the TransJakarta busway system, aiming to reduce the city’s traffic by encouraging people to take the buses.

Protesters at the time said the busway system would cause even more traffic jams because it was taking over lanes on already clogged roads.

But Sutiyoso ignored the criticism and went ahead and established corridors across the city.

Sutiyoso said on Thursday that the current administration must be more assertive in keeping the busway secured and exclusive, no matter what the circumstances.

“It takes consistency to make the system work,” he said.

Muhammad Akbar, head of the Jakarta Transportation Agency’s traffic-management division, said improvements were in the works, adding that 25 new portals would be installed across the busway lanes in the city.

“Hopefully starting in July, all lanes will be exclusive and free of cars or motorcycles,” Akbar said.

He added that the administration needed the help of police if it was going to improve the system.

Jakarta Police traffic director Sr. Comr. Condro Kirono said the police were always ready to help.

“But at several points in Jakarta it is impossible to keep the lanes exclusive [only for the busway’s buses],” Condro said.

A spokesman for the Jakarta administration, Cucu Ahmad Kurnia, said that in any case, it would continue trying to improve the quality of the busway, which he described as “the backbone of transportation in Jakarta.”

“It is one of [Jakarta Governor] Fauzi Bowo’s priorities in 2010,” Cucu said.