The city's train system was interrupted by two separate incidents Wednesday, with one train's transformer catching fire and a section of track breaking.
No one was injured in the incidents.
The 1,500 volt transformer of an economy class train caught fire around midday, as the train was leaving Palmerah station in West Jakarta, headed for Serpong.
Although most passengers stayed calm, the noise and smoke scared some, who jumped from the slowly moving train.
"It was not chaotic," said Setiadi, a newspaper seller who was among the passengers.
"Most passengers just ran to the front carriages and the train was not full because it was not peak hour. The doormen said the train was stopping and we got off afterward."
The conductor, Pardjiman, said he had not known about the fire until informed by a doorman, at which he immediately stopped the train.
"I was on the first carriage while the fire happened in the seventh carriage. I only felt that the train was rather jumpy," he told The Jakarta Post.
"Nobody was hurt and the fire was contained quickly."
After about an hour, the train could move and was taken for repair.
Akhmad Sujadi, spokesperson for state train operator PT Kereta Api (KA), said the fire was attributed to the age of the carriage, adding that the company was phasing out the old carriages.
"The carriages started operation in 1978 so they are not in a good condition. The doors cannot even be closed. We are changing over to air-conditioned carriages but the process does take some time," he said.
Separately, at around 7:00 a.m., a section of track broke in front of a turnout near Manggarai station, South Jakarta. The incident delayed 16 city electric trains and 10 intercity trains, making between around 3,000 and 4,000 passengers -- mostly commuters -- late for their destinations. The track took an hour to repair.
"It broke because of material fatigue. The track has been in operation for 23 years. However, with proper care and handling, its lifetime is actually 100 years. The collapse may have been caused by the heavy load and traffic the track experiences everyday," Akhmad said.
He said tracks underwent regular maintenance and were checked by a measuring train, but it was difficult to judge when and where the next fatigue would occur.
The city's electric trains carry around 700,000 Greater Jakarta passengers a day. It is expected that 2.1 million passengers will be traveling by city train by 2011.
KA recently created a new subsidiary, PT KA Jabodetabek (KAJ), to handle and improve the performance of train operations in the Greater Jakarta region. The KAJ, under the leadership of Kurniadi Atmosasmito, a former finance director of Indonesian mining giant PT Aneka Tambang Tbk, will assume operation in January next year. (mri)
