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n spite of protests from commuters, state railway operator PT KAI said it would go ahead with its plan to streamline the railway network by terminating the service of express and air-conditioned economy class trains.

KAI Greater Jakarta Operation Area head Purnomo Radiq said the company would continue with the plan, as it would be indispensable for the company to provide efficient services for commuters.

Purnomo said the streamlining would materialize in a single class, single price and single ticket system.

“That is how the true commuter transportation would look like. We will push for the implementation of this new system,” Purnomo said Monday.

Under its commuter line system, KAI plans to terminate the service of the Greater Jakarta express air-conditioned trains, which stops at only a few major stations and dispatches them as regular air-conditioned commuter trains which would stop at all stations starting in July.

KAI currently has three classes of trains serving the Greater Jakarta region — the express train, the air-conditioned economy train and the subsidized economy-class train.

The new arrangement will only have two types of services: The commuter line and the subsidized economy train.

Purnomo said that KAI expects to have only a single class in 2014.

“We will put the commuter line under a single operation system first, then we will move to implement the single class,” he said.

Ticket prices for the commuter line have been set at Rp 9,000 (US$1.05) and Rp 8,000. The current ticket prices for the air-conditioned economy train are Rp 4,500 and Rp 5,500. The price of tickets for the subsidized economy train is Rp 1,500.

Organizations representing train commuters have railed against the new policy, saying that it would be too expensive for passengers accustomed to the air-conditioned economy-class train.

Internet-based commuter train users organization KRL Mania has been gathering signatures for a petition it would file with, among others, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Transportation Ministry and two other ministries.

KRL Mania spokesman Agam Fatchurrochman said the organization had gathered support from a total of more than 24,000 commuters.

Train users have also criticized KAI’s plan to reduce the number of trips of the subsidized train.

KRL Mania said that the decision would force more people to take the economy-class train, when it only has limited capacity.

KAI said that all trips will have more train cars under the new arrangement.

— JP/Andreas D. Arditya