Railway operator urged to improve efficiency, upkeep<\/p>\n
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
Four employees of state-owned railway operator PT KAI were seen
\nchatting inside a ticket booth at Cawang station, East Jakarta,
\non Friday morning while two others sat at their desks serving
\ncustomers.<\/p>\n
As hundreds of commuters from Bogor, Depok and Pasar Minggu in
\nSouth Jakarta alighted and hurriedly approached the exit gate,
\none of the employees went out to check the passengers' tickets.<\/p>\n
Most of them slipped by him and went out without showing their
\ntickets. His colleagues didn't bother to help him.<\/p>\n
At each of the stations along the Bogor and Kota route, many
\nemployees were seen standing idly chatting to one another or in
\ngroups.<\/p>\n
With around 32,000 employees nationwide, many say that the
\nidle employees at PT KAI are the source of inefficiency in the
\ncompany.<\/p>\n
Train researcher Taufik Hidayat from the Indonesian Institute
\nof Sciences (LIPI) said that 60 percent of KAI's total expenses
\nof around Rp 2.2 billion went to salaries while the remaining 40
\npercent was divided between several types of expenses, including
\nmaintenance.<\/p>\n
\"Certainly, the funds used to maintain the existing equipment
\nare far from sufficient. We have repeatedly urged KAI to improve
\nits efficiency but little action has been taken so far,\" he told
\nThe Jakarta Post on Friday.<\/p>\n
He said that KAI had lowered its spending on maintenance to be
\nable to cover the cost of salaries and to keep up its profitable
\nimage although it had to sacrifice its quality of services and
\npublic safety.<\/p>\n
\"This poor maintenance has caused the recurrent accidents and
\ndelays that we have experienced in the last few years,\" Taufik
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
At least 52 people have died in 60 train accidents across the
\ncountry this year up until June, including the recent accident in
\nPasar Minggu that claimed at least four lives and injured 600
\nother passengers.<\/p>\n
The government said earlier that it would take Rp 11.6
\ntrillion to provide spare parts and maintain the existing system.<\/p>\n
The KAI's inefficiency can also be seen by the fact that the
\ncompany reported only Rp 4 billion in profit last year. Its total
\nassets are worth around Rp 3 trillion.<\/p>\n
\"The profit is nothing compared with its assets. It just that
\nthe government has requested the company to stay profitable
\n(while sacrificing maintenance),\" Taufik said.<\/p>\n
Taufik, who is also the executive director of Indonesia
\nRailway Watch, said that ticket and cargo revenue covered almost
\n96 percent of the total expenses with the remainder was covered
\nby revenue from rental space and parking.<\/p>\n
He argued that KAI should maximize its ticket revenue to be
\nable to increase its maintenance budget.<\/p>\n
A KAI official estimated that only half of Greater Jakarta's
\ntotal daily 450,000 passengers bought tickets, which range from
\nRp 1,000 to Rp 3,000.<\/p>\n
As building fences along the tracks requires a lot of money,
\nTaufik proposed that many of KAI's idle employees could be
\nmobilized to help in ticket screening to raise the company's
\nrevenue.<\/p>\n
The head of PT KAI's Greater Jakarta operations Rachmadi said
\nthat his office had conducted programs to improve people's
\nawareness of buying tickets as well as routine operations to
\nscreen people entering and leaving the station buildings.<\/p>\n
\"We have tried also to punish our officials who take money
\nfrom people without a ticket on board. They have to set an
\nexample for passengers,\" he told the Post.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/railway-operator-urged-to-improve-efficiency-upkeep-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}