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Commuters return to cars as trains deteriorate
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Workers start to lift the commuter train cars that derail in the area between Manggarai and Sudirman station in Central Jakarta on Wednesday. (Kompas.com/Kahfi Dirga Cahya)
O
nce hailed as an urban traffic panacea, the train system in Greater Jakarta has become less popular among commuters amid worsening services.
A victim of its own fame, the train system accommodates about a million passengers every day, many of whom suffer through rush hour.
Aliah, a 51-year-old resident of Depok, quit taking the train after growing tired of jostling with other train passengers on her way to work.
“During rush hour, I was always crushed by the crowd inside the train car and at one point I just had enough. So since 2014 my husband has been driving me to my office in Central Jakarta,” said Aliah, who had been a regular train commuter for nine years.
A 23-year-old Tangerang resident, Bramaseta Janottama, said he had given up taking the train primarily because of frequent delays that caused him to be late to work in South Jakarta.
“Now I always leave earlier with my car or Go-Jek. Even though I incur higher expenses, at least I get to the office on time,” said Bramaseta, a research executive.
Bramaseta and Aliah are two of many daily commuters from Greater Jakarta who have stopped taking with train and opted the more convenient transportation, their private vehicles.
A rapid growth of passengers and frequent train delays to and from Greater Jakarta are two main problems that have yet to be handled by PT KAI Commuter Jabodetabek (PT KCJ), the train operator that manages passengers from Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi.
According to KCJ data, the company currently transports an average of 885,642 passengers every day, a 40 percent hike from 2015 when it disembarked approximately 705,556 passengers every day.
KCJ’s total passengers in a year grew from 121 million in 2011 to 257.5 million in 2015, an extraordinary increase of 112 percent in a course of only four years.
The ceaseless growth of KCJ passengers exemplifies an increase of suburbanites working in Jakarta. The increase, however, may overwhelm the company as the trains provided seem inadequate to transport the passengers.
KCJ’s assistant communication manager, Adli Hakim Nasution, told The Jakarta Post that the problems derived from a lack of KCJ-dedicated railways, which hindered the company from adding more embarkations to its schedule.
“Many railways are used by more than one operator, so we have to compromise with them,” he said on Wednesday, citing the Manggarai-Bekasi line as among those problematic.
KCJ is making new schedules that may be implemented as soon as December, Adli said.
Adli continued that at present, the best the company could do was add more train cars to accommodate more passengers.
KCJ currently operates about 764 train cars on a daily basis. KCJ imported last month 30 secondhand train cars from Japan, with another 30 to follow next October. Those train cars will undergo feasibility studies by the Transportation Ministry before commencing operation.
However, the addition of the train cars may still not accommodate KCJ’s current figure of daily passengers.
“That is the best we can do for now, while hoping the city administration eases regulations,”Adli said.
The Jakarta administration has been working to handle the city’s severe traffic congestion in recent years, such as by encouraging residents to opt for public transportation instead of private vehicles. The administration has also issued supporting regulations, including the soon-to-be implemented electronic road pricing system and odd-even policy, which has been on a trial run on the city’s main roads since July 27. (adt/sha)
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