Becoming a train driver is no piece of cake

Text and photos by Tarko Sudiarno

YOGYAKARTA (JP): To the public, it may seem easy to operate a locomotive. You could drive it back and forth while sitting in the locomotive operator's room, perhaps having something to eat or drink at the same time. Few realize, however, the great responsibility that a locomotive operator assumes or that to become one, you must go through a long period of training.

In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post here, chief of Yogyakarta's Traction Engineering Educational Center (BPTT), Arief Wahyudi, said that special training over a relatively long period would be needed for someone to become a locomotive operator. "Theoretically, you can be fully entrusted to assume control of a train locomotive after completing two years of training, but in reality the training period can be as long as five years," he said.

BPTT is the center for locomotive operators and their assistants in Indonesia. It is at Yogyakarta's Railway Depot Zone, located to the east of Lempuyangan railway station. This center provides training for candidates sent by railway operational zones from Java and Sumatra. These candidates have usually graduated from technical high schools, have majored in mechanical engineering, or are already employed with state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI).

Arief said there were phases that one had to go through before one could become a locomotive engineer or operator. After three months of training as a locomotive operator's assistant at BPTT, the participants are returned to their respective operational zones, where they will be assigned for one year as a locomotive operator's assistant in charge of driving trains forward and backward at stations.

When the candidate is considered competent as a locomotive operator's assistant, they will be assigned to help a locomotive operator on public railways. At this phase, he will be assigned to a cargo train, not a passenger train. Success at this assignment will allow him to assist a locomotive operator on a passenger train. Even here there are steps, too. He will start in economy class and progress later to business and executive class.

"In all, a locomotive operator's assistant will have to complete a successful stint of two years before he may be promoted as a suitable candidate for a locomotive operator. Then he will return to BPTT to learn how to become a locomotive operator. Theoretically, this training period will last three months."

"In practice, it takes a locomotive operator's assistant an average of five years before he can be promoted as a fully- fledged locomotive operator. This long period is not the result of keen competition or bureaucracy but because it is really necessary for a locomotive operator's assistant to build up a lot of experience from train journeys," he said.

During the three-month training to become a locomotive operator, participants learn more of the theory that they received earlier and are given more opportunities to practice this theory. They also receive lessons about diesel engines in a train and its braking system, the tactical running theory, railway signs, take part in train workshops as well as receive some deeper knowledge of wiring diagrams.

"All the advanced subjects are necessary, especially in respect of locomotive maintenance, to minimize the likelihood that the train will brake down. When a train does encounter some mechanical difficulties on a journey, the locomotive operator plays a very important role. He must be able to sort out the problem and fix it so they are required to know the mechanics of a train locomotive inside out," he noted.

After completing training as a locomotive operator at BPTT, the participants will be returned to their respective operational zones. Again, they will have to go through the same phases in the same order that they underwent before as assistants.

Each phase takes a relatively long time, because controlling a train is not as easy as it is generally imagined. A locomotive operator must know the nature of his train and the conditions of different railway routes. This is something that he can acquire only over a long period of time.

"Take, for example, how to bring a train to a stop at a station. This is a skill that takes a long time to acquire. A skilled locomotive operator will be able to apply the brakes smoothly for the sake of the passengers' comfort. Obviously, this skill cannot be acquired overnight."

"Recently I joked with a pilot," Arief said. Flying an airplane, he told the pilot, is a piece of cake because the instruments are fully automatic. A pilot only has something to do when the plane takes off and lands. When the plane is in the sky, it will be automatically operated. A train is different, he said, because a locomotive operator must always be alert along the entire route.

Complex in nature

Arief said that the difficulty in operating a train locomotive was complex in nature. Apart from being able to operate all the instruments, a locomotive operator must also keep watch over the rail tracks ahead. He must observe the condition of the rails, railway crossings and the railway signs. Therefore, he said, a locomotive operator can only take charge of a train for about eight hours only. After eight hours, he will be replaced by a fresh operator.

"Experience shows that locomotive operators must be alert, particularly at railway crossings not officially designated as a crossing. Across Java there are quite a lot of places with unofficial railway crossings, where accidents have often occurred despite the alertness and watchfulness of the locomotive operator. In such cases, the public will always blame us," Arief said.

BPTT is not the only institution that will decide whether the participants successfully complete their training as locomotive operators or locomotive operator's assistants.

Instructors from railway operational zones and railway depots from the places that participants originate from will also have a say. After successfully completing the training, a locomotive operator's assistant will be given a license called T-62A and a locomotive operator T-62.

This license, issued by KAI, must be renewed every year. When renewing his license, a locomotive operator or a locomotive operator's assistant will have to go through an evaluation process to determine whether he is still qualified for this position or not.

After an absence of three months from operating a train for whatever reason, a locomotive operator cannot resume his job right away. He must go through a period of adjustment, during which he will work as an assistant, until he gets all his skills back and gets the hang of his job again.