Commute solution gets weary late-night travelers home

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 09/05/2008 11:31 AM  |  City

Some 40 commuters, sleepy but beginning to stir under the dim lights of the Palmerah train station in Central Jakarta, listened as loudspeakers announced the last train of the evening was on its way.

In a short while, the train to Serpong would be coming by to take them home.

It was around 11.10 p.m. on Wednesday and the air-conditioned economy class train should have arrived 5 minutes earlier.

"Don't worry. It's actually scheduled to arrive at 11.15. The schedule on the wall is wrong," Maryani, a commuter, assured The Jakarta Post.

She is one of many passengers who benefit from the late night trains that began operations back in June.

A young woman in her 20s, Maryani punched out at 9.30 p.m. that evening, choosing the last train of the day, which comes along almost two hours later and gets her home to Serpong in Tangerang by midnight.

"I'd rather wait for it (the last train). I would get home at midnight anyway and feel more tired if I take two buses directly after work. They're not as safe and the drivers make frequent stops to fill up seats," she said.

Another passenger, Rani Novianti, shared Maryani's enthusiasm for the new service. In the past, she had to take three separate buses and a motorcycle taxi from her workplace in West Jakarta to her home in Tangerang's Muncul district.

"I used to get home at around 1 a.m. Sometimes, I was the only one on the bus and I'd be really scared. But I had no alternative then," she said.

As the train, operated by state-owned PT Kereta Api Jabodetabek (KAJ), pulled into the station at 11.15 p.m., weary commuters boarded its brightly-lit cars.

As the train was not full, everyone got a seat.

"It's already more crowded than when it first started. I think because people used to think it's one of those dirty trains. We were skeptical, too, but it turned out to be great," Maryani said.

She's so happy, in fact, that she doesn't mind the extra Rp 1,000 she has to pay for service and security, on top of the usual Rp 5,000.

The head conductor for the evening, Naryo, said there were armed security officers on the train.

"They come either from the mobile brigade (Brimob), the police or the military police unit. Some bring rifles," Naryo added.

The extra effort shows. Passengers looked relaxed, dozing off, reading or chatting away quietly. Some even put their bags in the overhead compartments -- a stark contrast to the traditional image of public transportation in Jakarta, rife with theft and pickpocketing.

Both women hoped for more frequent service, but did not want to demand too much, saying the new trains were "already better than ever". However, they did ask for urgently needed weekend trains to accommodate their work schedules.

"I work most weekends and I really don't want to take the bus," Rani said glumly.

Ahmad Marzuki, operation director for KAJ, said the company had not seen a huge demand for weekend service.

"We will increase the frequency if there's demand. We have yet to see such requests through our normal feedback channels -- letters, our hotline, text messages. So, we're assuming there isn't much demand and will only concentrate on people who work normal office hours," he added.

According to Ahamd, the Serpong line, together with the Bogor and Bekasi lines, possessed great potential, with the company planning more routes and more frequent service.

"We want to add an evening train on the Bekasi line, but we still don't have the trains or the employees," he said, adding that a new line could open sometime after October.

Ticket sales have covered the operational costs of the new evening service, though not all expenses, he added. However, the company has seen an increase over the past three months in the number of passengers using the train, Ahmad said. (mri)

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