A plan by the government and the operator, state-owned PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI), to increase the fares this year recently stirred debate across the city, even though much of the plan that will affect millions of passengers remains sketchy.

Private employee Heru Suseno, 34, said it was about time the operator raised train fares. Heru lives in Depok, West Java, on the southern outskirts of Jakarta and commutes daily using trains through the city to reach Cikarang Station on its western outskirts.

"The last time they raised ticket prices was in 2016. So I think it's fair to increase them now, especially considering the fact that they have made many improvements to the Commuter Line services in recent years,” Heru told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said he had seen that many stations had been revamped since 2016, headways were reduced and pedestrian underpasses and bridges were built to make it safer for passengers to go from one platform to another.

"I hope that the train operator will improve the services even more after the fare hike," he added.

Heru, who spends Rp 14,000 (86 US cents) on his trips a day, said the fare increase would not deter people from taking commuter trains because they were still much faster and reliable compared with using private cars on the congestion-ridden streets of Jakarta.