THE planned train ticket price hike has been delayed,” Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa announced on Jan 9 following strong public protests. But while Jakarta’s commuters welcomed the move, the decision has done nothing to improve train services. Instead, the way the fare increase was announced and then rescinded the day after it came into effect has merely underlined a wider malaise besetting the country’s railway system.
Proposed fare increases were delayed three times last year as officials repeatedly buckled under the weight of public opinion. State train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) says it needs to increase economy-class train ticket prices by up to 63 per cent in response to rising operational and maintenance costs. But frequent delays, cancellations and a depressing string of fatal accidents mean that the public is hostile to such a move.
Every day, about 500,000 passengers, mostly low income workers, use Greater Jakarta’s rail network, which links Jakarta with the satellite cities of Bogor, Bekasi, Depok and Tangerang.
Mr Hatta said the latest delay in the fare increase was the result of input from the public and transportation experts. He did not elaborate. Nor did he say how long the postponement would last. The KAI has been trying to implement the increase since it was approved by the Transportation Ministry last July.
The latest postponement of fare increases comes in the wake of a series of service disruptions. In October, fire gutted 20 train cars outside Jakarta, forcing services to be delayed and leaving thousands of commuters stranded. Two weeks later, a power disruption caused a train to stop suddenly at Depok, producing delays elsewhere along the line.
Yet more disruptions took place in November, when the fibre optic signalling system between the Pasar Minggu and University of Indonesia stations failed. Then, last month, hundreds of commuters were left stranded after the KAI abruptly cancelled 40 services because some of its trains needed repair work.
The new year has brought little improvement. On Jan 7, a fire at the Jayakarta station during the morning rush hour forced commuters in Bogor and Depok to be late for work.
Indonesia’s national rail system is also notorious for its poor safety record, a situation blamed variously on old tracks, poor maintenance and human error by overworked staff.
In June last year, six people were killed and dozens injured when a train derailed and rolled down an embankment near Madiun, East Java. And in October, 34 people died and another 36 were injured when a train travelling from Jakarta to Surabaya slammed into a stationary train near Pemalang. About an hour later, a Bima express train collided with a Gaya Baru Malam train near Purwosari station in Solo, killing one passenger and injuring four others.
Such accidents have been commonplace for years. After each, the KAI apologises and promises to improve its performance. Politicians also launch investigations and demand reform. But with difficult decisions regularly postponed, nothing seems to change.
The KAI argues that it has little money to invest in upgrading ageing infrastructure because the annual subsidies it receives from the government are never sufficient. But the company has also lost huge amounts through corruption and mismanagement. In August last year, the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) raided the Jakarta office of Japanese business group Sumitomo Corporation as part of a graft probe into a US$6.3 million (S$8 million) deal involving the shipment of train carriages donated by Japan.
After years of debate, a 2007 law removed the KAI’s monopoly, opening the way for other companies to operate trains. But plans to sell parts of the Greater Jakarta network to private operators continue to face strong resistance from nationalists, who argue that the KAI management should be reformed instead.
Hope for the future comes in the form of plans to develop an urban MRT network. Work on the Japan-financed project is expected to commence this year, with the first stage involving the construction of seven elevated MRT stations and six underground stations in Jakarta. Plans are also afoot to construct a 33km railway between Manggarai railway station and Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
Hopefully, these systems will be better managed, and Jakarta’s perennial traffic woes will ease as a result. For commuters in Jakarta and elsewhere in the country using the existing rail system, however, the outlook remains bleak.
Copyright © 2011 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd