Business section lends train a touch of class

By Ati Nurbaiti

JAKARTA (JP): It used to be easy to spot the train from Rangkasbitung, West Java, along the numerous tracks at Kota station in downtown Jakarta.

"It was always the one with the cleanest roof, wiped clean by all the passengers' bottoms. They were always the dirtiest compared to the other passengers," says Muhari, an official at the Sudimara station in Tangerang.

No more. The economy class passengers are still among the dirtiest, but since last year, men in long sleeved shirts and women with make up have also been trooping out of the blue and green carriages coming from the same direction as the Rangkasbitung trains.

Besides, after at least 129 economy passengers were killed in a 1987 accident, last year a trial of electric carriages began, which at least discourages passengers from riding on the rooftops.

"Business class trains have improved our image," said Muhari while speaking about the route from Serpong, Tangerang. These trains serve the middle class commuters residing in the Bumi Serpong Damai complex, a self proclaimed developing "independent city".

Many of the business commuters also board at the Sudimara station, one stop away from Serpong, because it is more accessible to a number of housing complexes in Ciputat and Pondok Aren.

Over 50 cars, not counting motorbikes, are parked at the station daily. At Rp 800 (US 37 cents) for cars and Rp 500 for motorbikes this gives the railway company considerable secondary income. An additional fee is charged between 5 p.m. to 8 p.m..

The rest of the passengers come in public mini-vans from their homes.

Having paid Rp 1,400 for a single trip to town, only Rp 100 more than the air-conditioned city bus, they represent a distinct new breed of public transportation users. However, these passengers can remain their honorable selves, luxuriously content in the absence of congestion, mobs and reckless driving.

A couple of men dust the comfortable seats with the end of their newspapers and in just a few swishes the green covers are clean enough for business attire.

The train only stops at Sudimara and Tanah Abang, where most commuters get off before reaching the end of the line at Kota, which means standing is the exception. Most passengers continue their morning snooze or read the newspaper swiftly handed to them by a vendor at the station's entrance.

There are no vendors carrying baskets full of fruit, a trait of the regular Rp 500 trains that ply the same route. The fruit sellers must continue to battle the stink, chickens, and school boys hanging between the overflowing carriages. On these trains the floor is the main sitting, standing, or lying down area for the breast-feeding mothers fighting to get close to a broken window.

The business class trains don't pause to allow people to pile on their bundles of durian, firewood, clay pots and whatnot. They don't wait for a wayward driver, conductor or signalman either.

But the dirtier trains, which carry 3,000 passengers a day from Sudimara alone, remain important to many of the hundreds of business class passengers. They are the only trains available for those who work overtime or who cannot make it to the station in time in the morning.

So far the punctual trains only ply the route into town once in the morning and once back again at 5 p.m. from Kota station.

This is why only 16 regular business class commuters from Sudimara have opted to purchase the cheaper monthly Rp 55,000 ticket, said station chief Sudaryanto.

Darta, a bank employee, and Meike S., who works for a private importer, regularly use the business class train but are not adverse to taking the regular train if they can't make it to the station on time.

"It's still better taking the cheaper trains rather than enduring the stress of catching a bus after work," said Meike, who added that it is important for her to feel fresh and tidy after her morning trip to work.