TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Textile exporters welcome more cargo trains leaving from Bandung
Change Size
Workers operate a crane to lift containers at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta. (kompas.com/File)
A
dream of West Java textile exporters has come true with the launch of more freight trains taking containers from Gedebage Station in the province to Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta.
Gedebage Station, which has been in place since the 1990s but closed down for several years due to technical constraints, will serve more trains starting on Saturday after having been restored last June.
“This has been our wish for the past 10 years. The current ministries showed good cooperation to launch the trains and cut our logistic costs,” said Ade Sudrajat, chairman of the Indonesia Textile Association (API), on Friday.
(Read also:Indonesia's exports surged in November: BPS)
From Saturday, the trains, operated by state-owned train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), will depart from Gedebage Station at 7:25 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., and from Tanjung Priok Port at 3:40 a.m. and 5 a.m.
Each train pulls 15 40-foot equivalent units (FEUs) with transportation costs of Rp 4.6 million (US$343) for each FEU, or 30 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) for Rp 2.46 million per TEU.
API has signed a one-year contract with PT KAI to use the service and will communicate the newest schedules to its members as faster alternatives compared to trucks.
With various road problems from Jakarta to West Java ranging from traffic and the damaged Cisomang Bridge, train travel is much faster -- about four to five hours faster compared to trucks that need about 12 hours to make the journey. (bbn)
