Editorial: Railway promise

Sat, 03/08/2008 12:01 AM  |  Opinion

Amid worsening traffic jams and more damaged roads in Jakarta, perhaps only a few of us realize there is a good news -- no matter how small it is -- from state-owned railway company PT KAI for commuters in Greater Jakarta.

Many travelers now have begun to shift to commuter trains, thanks to the deployment of more air conditioned carriages by the company.

The company's progress is laudable because it will make public transportation by rail more popular, not only for low-income workers, but also for middle- to upper-class urban travelers.

Now, when on board commuter trains serving Greater Jakarta, we will experience a new atmosphere. There are people with expensive suits on and the smell of perfume is now throughout commuter carriages.

Of course, we are still waiting for further action from the railway operator to make commuter trains more secure, safer, more reliable and more convenient for users, including those who are using the economy services, which are still too crowded during rush hour.

PT KAI deserves appreciation. Various efforts -- deployment of more train carriages including air conditioned cars for economy class, renovations made to stations, construction of more networks and opening of new routes -- have been afforded to improve its services.

The opening of the inner city Blue Line railway passing through dozens of stations along a circle network covering large areas in all Jakarta municipalities is a strategic step for further development of the Greater Jakarta railway service.

With the new line, commuters from all over Greater Jakarta can easily make the change to the Blue Line using a number of stations to continue their trip to many parts of the city.

Meanwhile, passengers of the inter-city trains will also easily continue their trips to major parts of Greater Jakarta -- Bogor, Depok, Tangerang City, Serpong and Bekasi.

PT KAI needs to deploy more train cars along the line because we can not expect immediate success when the train comes to each station only every hour.

The headway has to be shortened from one hour to ideally a period of five minutes.

The Blue Line will also help the integration of the railway with the busway, which continues to be developed by the Jakarta City Administration.

Surely, Jakarta not only needs rail services for its public transportation, because of its limited network, most of which was developed during the colonial era.

Railway services in the Greater Jakarta currently transport some 500,000 people, or less than 5 percent of total urban travelers.

Therefore, we have also pushed the city administration to improve the current poor busway services along its seven existing corridors, which make up a total of 15 corridors to be developed in the city.

The railway company recently launched a month-long program to encourage its users to abide by existing regulations.

The campaign included stopping the public from riding on the roof of train carriages or in engineers' cabins, to buy tickets and to not smoke while traveling.

But on the other hand, the company should also discipline its employees, including punishing engineers who allow passengers to occupy their cabin and ticket checkers who ask for money from passengers traveling without tickets.

We are still waiting for the arrival of the mass rapid transit (MRT) and the monorails.

So far it seems it is a mere idea, although on monorails we have seen little progress, while MRT remains strong on paper only.

The ongoing railway progress in Jakarta is indeed encouraging.

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