Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Train passengers at Manggarai station in South Jakarta are getting used to uncomfortable waits, with many of them spreading newspapers on the floor to sit out the long gaps between trains.
On Monday afternoon the station wasn't crowded, but the few seats were not enough for the hundreds of commuters awaiting their trains.
Hamdani of Depok Baru, who uses the express train every day, said he was used to standing at platforms as almost no stations in Greater Jakarta were equipped with enough waiting chairs.
On this day he also sat on the platform as the trains were behind schedule.
"I don't mind enduring this hardship, because I'm already used to sitting on the floor in the train, and it is much better than enduring zillions of traffic jams to get to my office," said the employee of a private company in South Jakarta.
It has been love-hate relationship between passengers and the city's train network. As one of the most extensive transit systems linking the city to its neighboring regions, it has been the answer for many residents tired of traffic jams.
But passengers endure glitches in the service.
Delays are frequent and trains not always well-maintained. Some riders have to struggle to get to their trains as most stations in Greater Jakarta are not equipped with sufficient parking space.
"I need to wait for my husband to drop me at the station early in the morning and pick me in the afternoon as there is no parking lot here," said Nina Wahyuni, a researcher at an institute in Menteng, South Jakarta, who travels by the 6 a.m train from Bogor to Sudirman station every day.
The number of passengers on state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api (PT KA) trains in Greater Jakarta has dropped in recent years as services have scarcely improved despite the increasing fare for all train classes.
From 117 million passengers in 2002, the company was down to 100 million in 2005.
However, as roads gets increasingly congested every year, the central government and the Jakarta administration have renewed their hope in using the network to ease traffic.
A train law passed last year obliges PT KA to split its authority to private firms or local governments to improve services.
The law ordered that after a transition period lasting until 2009, every region could operate its own train service, with PT KA staying on only as the controller of railway network.
The privatization plan has pushed the rail company to make major changes to its networks, and to target raising the number of daily passengers in Greater Jakarta from about 290,000 in 2006, or 1.75 percent of area's 16 million total commuters, to 390,000 by 2010.
It has conducted a series of evictions along the rail tracks to keep trains from delays and accidents.
The company has also increased cars for several routes like Depok-Manggarai as well as revitalized several abandoned lines like the Ciliwung Blue Line that traverses the inner-city.
The inner-city line from Manggarai station to Jatinegara station in East Jakarta last operated in the 1980s. It was closed within a few years as it attracted very few passengers.
The company also plans to redesign the network by making the Manggarai station the central hub for lines from eastern and southern Jakarta, thus avoiding conflicts with the increasing number of train cars operating in Greater Jakarta.
Once the station is reconstructed, no train from southern outskirt of Jakarta will travel directly to Kota station in West Jakarta.
Spokesman for PT KA's Greater Jakarta division Akhmad Sujadi said a lack of attention from the central and local governments was the main reason for the network's problems.
"Road-based transportation has outpaced the train network in the past decades while the Greater Jakarta division was trapped as only a small unit within the company," he told The Jakarta Post.
The division had to make decisions only with the approval of the company's central management, he said, effectively handcuffing efforts to set tracks and improve services for decades.
"Most of the tracks in Greater Jakarta are Dutch-inherited, built for trade activities, so some tracks do not match the commuting patterns today," Akhmad said.
One of the idle tracks links Kota to Tanjung Priok. Several parts of the track were covered by semi-permanent settlements.
Company-built lines include the Depok-Bogor line and the double-track linking Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta to Serpong in Tangerang.
In 2000, the division was given greater autonomy, but its income still goes directly to company headquarters, with the division receiving its budget from the larger unit.
"We are trying so hard to improve our services, but of course it will take a while before we really meet people's expectations," said Akhmad.
Annual passengers and ticket sales of PT KA's Greater Jakarta division
Year Passengers Ticket sales
(in millions) (in billions of rupiah)
- 2002 - 117.86 119.26
- 2003 - 102.04 156.41
- 2004 - 100.39 169.12
- 2005 - 100.96 186.51
- 2006 - 104.58 205.86
Source: Jakarta In Numbers 2007
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