Bali Tourists Will Have Access To Smart Buses In 2025

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Bali is preparing to integrate and launch a new smart bus system that will massively improve public transportation availability on the island.

The new system is set to be up and running in 2025 and will connect the electric bus rapid transit system with an intelligent transport system. 

Speaking to reporters the head of the Bali Transportation Department, IGW Samsi Gunarta, said on Tuesday 25th June that the electric bus rapid transit system (eBRT) is expected to start to operate in two routes in 2025. The bus service is expected to provide certainty to passengers regarding travel and arrival times.

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The new system will ensure that electric buses can run more efficiently across the island. The dedicated bus lanes will be created to ensure that public transport vehicles have a specific lane that cannot be used by private vehicles.

This will help combat the island’s significant traffic congestion issues and, in turn, help encourage more people to use public transport. 

However, the process of getting this new and improved public transportation system up and running could cause some issues.

Speaking to the media I Made Rai Ridharta, who is the chairperson of the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) Bali, highlighted limited road space as an obstacle to the development of public transportation on the island. Ridharta said, “Building a special road is not possible due to limited space.” 

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Nevertheless, Gunarta and his teams are confident that they will be able to construct dedicated bus lanes so that the smart bus public transportation system can be fully operational in 2025.

He told reports, “It’s already in progress this year; by 2025, it must be running; these are two corridors from the north-south route of the Ubung area-Ngurah Rai Airport through the city, then east-west from the Sanur area to Seminyak,”

He added, “Buses must maintain an average speed from route to route; with the limited infrastructure that we can build, we inevitably have to use existing roads, and this requires engineering.”

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“This means that apart from dedicated lanes, people may be restricted from entering there, so priority lanes must have good pedestrians and pay attention to security and safety. Therefore, an integrated system must be prepared, and the basis must be IT.”

Officers from the Bali Public Works, Spatial Planning, Housing, and Settlement Areas (PUPR Kim) Department have confirmed that they are currently identifying the roads that will be used by electric bus transportation (BRT), and the plan is to build new special routes and priority routes.

The Head of Highways at the Bali PUPR Service, Dewa Ayu Puspa Dewi said that the results of the viability study showed that there were many obstacles in terms of insufficient road width if it was subdivided into special electric bus lanes.

Dewi said, “Some are even only four meters wide, so it is impossible to prepare a dedicated bus lane, such as on Jalan Hang Tuah, the east-west route is narrow, congested, and widening the road is difficult.”

“The problem is that the width is not adequate, so at least there is mixed traffic, the problem there is that it will not be achieved according to schedule, for example at the bus stop A it is supposed to arrive at 8 o’clock, but when you meet a mixed road, it can be more.” 

The signing of the cooperation/kick-off feasibility study for the e-BRT project was carried out at the Wiswa Sabha Building, Bali Governor’s Office, in October 2023.

These latest statements confirm that progress is underway and show that despite obstacles, leaders are still committed to finding a way to ensure the new and improved bus services will be up and running for local people and tourists in 2025.

Public bus services are available in Denpasar and surrounding areas. However, these services are not widely used by tourists since the routes are generally designed to best serve residents and commuters in the Denpasar area. 

Updates on the electric bus rapid transit system come as leaders in Badung Regency have confirmed that a viability study remains underway for the development of a tram network that would connect Bali Airport and the tourism resorts of the southern coast, in addition to the antidoted Bali Urban Rail Network, both of which are set to have construction start this year.