Bali has welcomed the return of its public bus service, the Trans Metro Dewata.
The service assists thousands of local residents in traveling through the central south of the island for work and the needs of daily life; the bus service can also be used by tourists who are seeking an affordable way to travel between the island’s biggest resort areas.
The Trans Metro Dewata bus service was halted back in January due to a restriction in government funding.
Over the weekend the service was finally resumed, with all six routes now fully operational again.
Though all six routes are running regularly, the number of daily services has been reduced to help improve efficiency.
As the Operational Manager of PT Satria Trans Jaya, Ida Bagus Eka Budi, explained to reporters on Thursday 17th April, “The distance between buses becomes between 17-19 minutes from the previous 12-13 minutes.” The service will now operate 75 times daily across the six routes, as opposed to the 105 services that it offered previously.
Tourists who are looking to utilize the bus service can find live travel updates and timetables on the MitraDarat app, which can be downloaded from all smartphone app stores.
The six main bus routes offered by Trans Metro Dewata are
Route 1: Kuta Parking Centre – Pesiapan Terminal
The first departure is at 4.30 am. The last departure is at 6.33 pm
Route 2: Ubung Terminal – Ngurah Rai Airport
The first departure is at 5 am. Last departure 6.49 pm
Route 3: Ubung – Sanur Terminal
The first departure is at 5 am Last departure 6.53 pm.
Route 4: Ubung Terminal – Monkey Forest Parking Centre
The first departure is 5 am Last departure is at 6.30 pm
Route 5: Kuta Parking Centre – Bali State Polytechnic
The first departure is at 5 am. Last departure at 6.36 pm.
Route 6: Kuta – Nusa Dua Parking Centre
The first departure is at 5 am. The last departure is at 7 pm.
As the service gets up and running again, Budi has spoken to the media to warn the public that skipping paying the bus fare will not be tolerated. He shared that bus drivers had noted that passengers had been trying to cheat the system to avoid paying the IDR 4,400 per ride bus fare.
Passengers can use the digital payment system QRIS to pay their bus fare, the system uses a QR-code payment that connects directly to passenger’s digital wallets or bank accounts, making it easy for foreigners in Indonesia, as well as Indonesian nationals to make their payments on the go.
Speaking to reporters Budi explained, “Related to the payment using QRIS, many frauds are committed by bus users.” He revealed that many Trans Metro Dewata bus users have been scanning the QR code in front of the driver, but do not press ‘pay’.
Rather, they quickly bring up on their screen a screenshot image of a previous QRIS Trans Metro Dewata ticket payment and flash it to the driver. The driver, who is ready and focused on keeping everyone moving does not have the time to fully check the screenshot and the passenger quickly walks onto the bus.
Budi explained It has happened in the previous period. (The cheating) was found by the bus driver. Not the result of the barcode scan (shown) but a screenshot. The screenshot result (previous payment) can be used again (to deceive the driver).”
Budi revealed that a new layer of payment checks will be rolled out across bus service following a successful trial on the Ubung Terminal – Monkey Forest Parking Centre Route.
Soon, passengers and the driver will be clearly notified when the QRIS payment has been successful as an automated voiced notification will sound out following the completion of payment at the entrance to the bus.
While the Trans Metro Dewata bus service is available to tourists to use throughout their vacations and trips in Bali, it remains the case that the most popular way for visitors to travel throughout the island is by private taxis or self-driving motorcycles.
Online taxi providers like Grab, GoJek, and even Bluebird Taxi are available day and night throughout Bali’s most popular resort areas such as Canggu, Uluwatu, Sanur, Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Jimbaran and Nusa Dua.
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Julian
Monday 28th of April 2025
Do these Bali officials not have the slightest touch of reality?? Bali needs public transportation more than air. The traffic is already hell. They need to make the busses more easy to use, pay by Apple Pay or google wallet not some unknown app that doesn’t accept foreign cards. And need to increase the routes, introduce express routes and more. When the traffic is worse and worse by each day they decide to remove the busses and then reintroduce them with lower frequency??
Martin
Sunday 27th of April 2025
God knows why they've reintroduced it. Most of the buses carry between zero and 3/4 passengers. There mostly used for carrying air.
Martin
Saturday 26th of April 2025
Who cares?
Jordan
Thursday 24th of April 2025
I highly doubt tourists are going to wait around for this to save a few rupiah. You can get a 5-15 minute grab instantly for like 11-20k already. I've been here 3 years and never once seen a foreigner waiting at the bus stop for these.
Shorty
Friday 25th of April 2025
@Jordan,
As Ive posted elsewhere, this focus on tourists is bullshit. Have a look at the traffic. It's overwhelmingly locals going about their business. They should be the primary focus.
Steve bm
Wednesday 23rd of April 2025
God forbid lokals have been scaming the system how did that get into tourist bashing agenda. As well they been trying to avoid cash payments systems all over the island these days because of the massive corrupsi by who ? By who ?