TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Train derails, no casualties reported
An economy-class passenger train derailed Tuesday on the way from Jakarta to Tegal, Central Java, prompting a four-hour delay for its 600 passengers, with no fatalities reported
Change Size
A
n economy-class passenger train derailed Tuesday on the way from Jakarta to Tegal, Central Java, prompting a four-hour delay for its 600 passengers, with no fatalities reported.
The incident reportedly occurred at 6:30 p.m. near the West Java town of Indramayu, 175 kilometers from Jakarta, when one of the Tegal Arum train’s 10 carriages derailed.
A crane had to be brought out to clear the carriages from the line and cart them to the nearby Kejaksaan Station in Cirebon.
“It was the No. 3 carriage that derailed,” Rudi Effendi, spokesman for railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia’s Cirebon branch, said Wednesday.
“It took long to clear the line.”
All passengers were transferred to the Berantas and Kertajaya trains to continue their trip.
Rudi said a team from the National Transportation Safety Commission (KNKT) was investigating why the carriage had derailed.
“We’re not going to speculate at this point,” he added.
He said the incident had not seriously affected other trains using the same line, because it was a dual-track line.
“The other trains still had to slow down to switch tracks and take turns going by, but it didn’t delay them too much,” Rudi said, adding his office was still assessing the cost of the damage incurred.
The incident marks the first train accident of the year.
Last year, a string of train derailments and collisions resulted in five fatalities and scores of injuries.
The previous accident was a collision between a sole locomotive and an economy-class passenger train in Central Jakarta.
There were no casualties in that incident.
The incident reportedly occurred at 6:30 p.m. near the West Java town of Indramayu.
