IN AN ATTEMPT TO MINIMIZE ACCUMULATION, SURABAYA CITY GOVERNMENT EVALUATES SHUTTLE BUS FLOW AND PREPARES ADDITIONAL BUSES
2023-11-13
The Surabaya City Government has tried to maximize the shuttle buses used for the mobility of U-17 World Cup spectators, Friday (10/11/2023) night. A total of 130 bus units were dispatched to the Gelora Bung Tomo Stadium (GBT) to carry the audience to watch the prestigious event.
Head of the Surabaya City Transportation Agency (Dishub) Tundjung Iswandaru said, the number of buses provided by the first departure yesterday afternoon was 130 bus units. Hundreds of buses were distributed at 6 pick-up points provided by the local committee (LOC) of the U-17 World Cup and Surabaya City Government.
At the time of departure, the buses were busy, taking turns delivering thousands of spectators to the GBT Stadium. Before maghrib time, all the buses managed to transport all the spectators to the parking area of fields A, B and C of the GBT Stadium.
Well, after the match finished at 21.00 WIB, the supporters began to leave together to the pick-up point area at the stadium to rush home. Buses were lined up neatly in the parking areas of fields A, B and C. Thousands of supporters waited for their turn to get a ride to the initial pick-up points when they departed.
"We've done our best, but the ratio between the number of people (passengers) and buses is not proportional. The hope is that they can be transported several times, now they want to return immediately, at the same time. At the same time, it takes time to transport," said Tundjung, Saturday (11/11/2023).
To minimize the queue of supporters who wanted to go home immediately, the Surabaya City Transportation Agency also added 30 units of bus fleet. So the total number of buses available last night was 160 units. The added fleet includes Semanggi Suroboyo buses, Suroboyo Buses, school buses, and Wara Wiri transportation.
"If the time is the same, it requires a transportation process, people also go back and forth between the buses. We have to be patient, we have arranged it before, tomorrow we will rearrange it, we will evaluate again what the flow is like. We will re-engineer it, we will organize it again," he said.
Tundjung explained that so far the transportation flow and passenger drop-off points that have been set are in the parking area of fields A, B, and C of the GBT Stadium. According to him, during the process of departing the audience at 6 pick-up points there were no problems, but at the time of returning some spectators could not wait to get home.
He ensured that the spectators who attended the opening of the U-17 World Cup yesterday evening were fully transported. From the end of the match at 21.00 WIB until 23.00 WIB, the spectators were all transported.
"Only 2 hours have all been clear. At first, the departure was okay, each of them was neat. Well, on the initial return, they were still on track, but in the second rhythm, when returning, they couldn't wait to get on in the middle, couldn't wait to get into their place first. In essence, it takes cooperation with everyone," he said.
In the next match, he called on the audience to wait in order for the bus according to the pick-up point. The goal is to avoid long lines. "Yesterday we appealed to get on inside. Indeed, we realized yesterday that it was not comparable (the number of buses), but we have made the shelter, the intention is to enter the shelter first and then get on," he appealed.
To avoid another accumulation on Monday (13/11/2023), he will conduct an evaluation to prepare the shuttle bus flow. He hopes that after the evaluation, there will be no more passengers scrambling or waiting long at the pick-up point. "I will evaluate it to prepare for Monday, what the model is like," he concluded. (*)