Just like someone who has undergone a total cosmetic alteration, the Cisauk train station in Tangerang, Banten, is almost unrecognizable with its new futuristic design.

Traces of the small, old and dull station building in the remote Greater Jakarta area are nowhere to be seen as it has been transformed into a modern two-story building of metal and glass, with angled zinc pillars at the exit way.

The station, rebuilt by property giant PT Sinar Mas Land, which also developed the middle- to upper-income Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) housing complex, is now connected with the BSD 2 Modern Market and the BSD Intermodal Terminal by a bridge. The terminal provides shuttle buses to the BSD City area. The station building is also equipped with escalators and elevators to facilitate people with disabilities.

Nearby, apartment buildings incorporating the transit-oriented development (TOD) concept are being built by two different developers: PT Adhi Commuter Properti, subsidiary of state-owned construction firm PT Adhi Karya, and PT Hutama Anugrah Propertindo.

Irma Wulan, 37, a resident of a housing complex near the station who has commuted from there to Tanah Abang Station, Central Jakarta, almost every day for more than a year, said that as the station’s appearance had been transformed, public behavior in it had also improved.

“It has been changed a lot since the station is more neat and has more chairs, unlike in the old times when people used to sit on the floor. There are those who still sit on the stairs, but the situation is much better now,” she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Sharing the same view is Deden Setiawan, a security officer on the train platform, who said that the passengers had become more orderly since the new station began operating on Feb. 1. However, he said a few people maintained the old habit of sitting on the floor or the stairs.

“Sometimes it’s hard to remind them. Passengers are often fiercer than us,” he said.

Another passenger, Desy Hartini, 25, a resident of Gading Serpong, said the station’s condition was totally different from a few years ago when the electric, non-air-conditioned economy train was still operating.

Cisauk Station has existed since 2009, when the electric trains were famous for their “atapers”, passengers who sat on the roofs of the cars. Moreover, buskers and vendors could freely roam the trains at that time.

In 2013, Greater Jakarta train operator PT KAI Commuter Jabodetabek, now known as PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI), started to modernize services and eliminate all the economy trains, replacing them with commuter line services.

The revitalization is still going on with the revamp of most train stations in the Greater Jakarta area, the majority of which are now equipped with underground passages or bridges, no longer forcing the passengers to cross the tracks.

According to the Transportation Ministry, the train stations that have been modernized recently are the Klender, Buaran, Klender Baru and Cakung, as well as the eastbound platform of Kranji and the westbound platform of Citeras.

KCI spokesperson Eva Chairunnisa said the improvement of facilities at stations was a critical component for implementing the TOD concept in an area.

Eva said she asked private developers to take advantage of this by building public facilities and supporting social facilities.

Currently, TOD concept apartment buildings have been built within sight of several stations, including the Tanjung Barat Station in South Jakarta, the Pondok Cina Station in Depok, West Java and the Rawa Buntu Station in South Tangerang. (ggq)

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