Erry Wibowo, 36, shuddered when he was asked if he was willing to pay Rp 100,000 (US$7.42) to use the newly opened airport train service connecting the Jakarta city center to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.

“Maybe it would be better to take Go-Car, right? [...] If I traveled alone for Rp 100,000, that would be kind of expensive,” he told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, referring to the ride-hailing service by homegrown start-up Go-Jek.

Erry, a Jakarta-based private employee, used the new train service on its inaugural day after landing at Indonesia’s busiest airport from Bali at 10:30 a.m.

The train service was priced at Rp 30,000 during its trial operation period from Dec. 27, 2017 to Jan. 1. Starting Jan. 2, passengers must pay Rp 70,000, a promotional fare that will end after two months.

The Transportation Ministry announced that, after the two-month period, the fare would rise to Rp 100,000, the standard fare set by train operator PT Railink.

However, during the launching of the service at the airport, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo requested that the fee be kept at the more affordable price of Rp 70,000.

“This was not only about providing an airport train, but also about persuading people to shift from private cars to public transportation modes,” he said in his speech at Sudirman Baru Station.

The President further said that plans to retain the fare were being considered, such as one on having the Jakarta government subsidize travel costs.

The ministry itself has subsidized economy-class railway trips between cities, including those run under the Greater Jakarta commuter line managed by PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI), a subsidiary of state railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), which owns a part of Railink.

Railink president director Heru Kuswanto previously said that, based on the operator’s feasibility study, the fare had to exceed Rp 75,000 per trip to compensate for the high land procurement costs in the Rp 3.6 trillion project funded by the company and its two shareholders, KAI and state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II. However, he also said he wanted the price to remain competitive.

The train service is set to run without public service obligation (PSO) subsidies from the government and will instead rely on a purely business-to-business scheme.

Concerns over the fare are relevant as an existing airport train service that was launched in 2013 and connects Medan and Kualanamu International Airport in North Sumatra has suffered from a low passenger occupancy rate of around 50 percent.

The service fare stands at Rp 100,000 with 40 trips daily and a travel duration of around 30 minutes from Medan Station to Kualanamu Station.

The new airport train service in Greater Jakarta, meanwhile, includes 42 trips daily with a travel time of 55 minutes per trip between Sudirman Baru Station and Soekarno-Hatta Station.

In response to the fare issue, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said the government could not force the companies to accept a low fare.

“We will talk about the fare with related institutions because it’s a business,” he said. “There should be sponsorships or subsidies from the government.”

Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) transportation expert Djoko Setijowarno warned that the train operator might risk serving a low number of passengers because of the high fare.

“Operators should not just take the revenue from the passengers. They could also use their assets to pull in extra revenue,” he said.

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