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105 days of ‘mourning’: Commuters’ viral action leads to Bekasi Station escalator fix
One Bekasi resident's daily social media posts about a broken train station escalator finally led to its repair, but only after she and a group of like-minded commuters went offline to stage a minor protest resembling a 100th-day memorial service.
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A woman walks on Jan. 31, 2024 past a mock funeral wreath commemorating the 100th day of an out-of-service escalator at Bekasi railway station in the West Java city. Rallying around daily social media posts by local residents Mega Utami, several commuters banded together to place the wreath at the station to urge authorities to repair the broken escalator, which was finally fixed on day 105. (Antara/Fakhri Hermansyah )
F
or more than three months, millions of Indonesian eyes were focused on social media, but not on content related to the 2024 election: on daily posts urging authorities to repair an escalator that had been out of service for over 100 days at Bekasi railway station in Bekasi, West Java.
The hype over the broken escalator began with daily updates from local resident Mega, a 26-year-old social media specialist who commutes to her Jakarta workplace by train.
She uploaded a picture of the broken escalator every day to her account (@PernebangRoket) on X, formerly Twitter, demanding that it be repaired.
The out-of-service escalator was one of several connecting the station’s entrance on the ground floor with the concourse on the second floor.
Some people might not have had a problem about climbing up and down the stairs next to the broken escalator, but other transit users such as the elderly, people with disabilities and those lugging around heavy suitcases might not have the strength or agility to do so, Mega says.
“It’s our right as consumers. Even though I only pay Rp 3,000 [20 US cents] for the [Commuter Line] train, it’s still not free,” she told The Jakarta Post recently.
She had been uploading photos of the broken escalator since last October in an effort to voice her concerns, making sure to tag the official accounts of state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), the parent company of the Commuter Line rail service.
