T

he government is targeting to finish the construction of a double-track railway in northern Java later this month, hoping it will cut travel time and fuel costs of logistics shipments between Jakarta and Surabaya, East Java.

Transportation Ministry director general for railways Hermanto Dwiatmoko said on Monday that once the project had been completed it would significantly cut the travel time of the old single-track railway.

'€œFreight trains from Kalimas station in Surabaya to Tanjung Priok station in Jakarta, for example, will be able to travel almost three hours faster on the double-track railway,'€ he said.

Hermanto also said that logistics transportation by truck between the two cities could take up to three days, compared to only 16 hours on the new double-track line.

According to Hermanto, maximum freight train speed on the new track was expected to reach 70 kilometers per hour compared to 50 kilometers per hour on the old single-track railway.

Passenger trains, meanwhile, can run at 100 km per hour on the double-track railway, or 10 km faster than on the single-track, and would not have to stop to let incoming trains pass.

Hermanto went on to say that the weakness of railways for logistics is that it could not provide door-to-door delivery and companies had to operate trucks to load and unload goods at depots.

'€œCurrently, PT Kereta Api Indonesia [KAI] is preparing unloading infrastructure at Kalimas station and Tanjung Priok station,'€ he said.

According to Hermanto, the ministry had carried out a study and found that changing the mode of transportation for 1 million tons of goods from container truck to freight train on the northern Java track could save up to Rp 3.4 trillion (US$295 million) in fuel subsidies in a year.

'€œOur budget to develop the double-track railway project is Rp 10.8 trillion, which means in three years, the ministry will have paid off the project from savings in subsidies alone,'€ Hermanto said.

He added that increased reliance on railways for freight would also cut costs in road repairs and reduce traffic accidents, especially along the northern Java coastal highway.

The northern Java double-track railway still has an 8-km stretch along the Kandangan'€“Surabaya section awaiting completion.

'€œThe ministry is confident that [the track] will be finished in late May as the land acquisition process is going well,'€ he said, adding that the only remaining hurdle was removing a community hall in the area '€” a plan he said he had discussed with Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini on Friday.

Meanwhile, the construction of the southern Java double-track railway still has a long way to go. '€œThe south line from Cirebon [West Java] to Purwokerto [Central Java] will be finished in December. The rest are targeted to finish in 2016 or 2017,'€ Hermanto said.

Additionally, the ministry directorate general for railways released on Monday a new departure and arrival schedule effective June 1 for trains in Indonesia in accordance with the opening of the northern Java double-track line.

The government is expecting to save up to Rp 58 trillion in fuel costs and cut 62 tons of carbon emissions per year with the new schedule. Several new routes are included in the schedule, such as the Surabaya'€“Banyuwangi line plied by the Probowangi train and the Purwokerto'€“Semarang Tawang line by the Kamandaka train. (ask)