Crossing guards seek changes to outmoded system

JAKARTA (JP): Railway crossing guards still operating manual indicator devices have suggested state railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) immediately replace them with automatic ones to avoid further accidents.

Contacted separately on Thursday at their places of work, two guards said judging from the series of train accidents in Greater Jakarta in the past few weeks, they badly needed high-tech instruments to do their jobs.

Crossing guard Mulyadi at Pramuka Jati rail crossing in East Jakarta said it was high time the authority started replacing the devices.

"Up until now, we have had to rely only on the capabilities of our ears and eyes as the technology is so limited," he said, showing the simple instrumentation at the small guardhouse.

The post is equipped with an indicator device which alerts Mulayadi if a train is approaching.

"A ring informs me that a train is already 700 meters away and that I should immediately lower the crossing gate (to prohibit people and vehicles crossing)," said Mulyadi, who has been serving as a PT KAI crossing guard for 15 years and now receives a monthly salary of Rp 550,000.

Mulyadi confirmed the device at his guardpost was still in use elsewhere in the capital.

Other guardposts are already equipped with automatic crossing gates that lower if a train is approaching.

"Using the manual system, I sometime find it difficult to even have my lunch or do other things because we should not leave our post for a single second.

"Moreover, the frequency of the train movements here is quite high," Mulyadi said.

Saridan, a railway crossing guard at Pondok Cina, Depok, uses an identical manual system.

"I'm always prepared for six hours during the morning and afternoon shifts, and 11 hours during the evening shift," he said.

He sincerely hoped PT KIA could replace the aging and out-of- date indicator with a latest model.

"I think such a changeover should be carried out soon as possible. We are always the first people to be blamed every time a train accident takes place," Mulyadi said.

He said he had been a crossing guard for 11 years and was currently earning Rp 475,000 a month.

Mulyadi is not satisfied with his salary. He said it was not enough when the amount of responsibility he was facing was taken into account.

In certain parts of Jakarta, people man their own railway crossing gates in an attempt to make illegal shortcuts across railway tracks safer.

As a result, these illegal crossing gates are usually in the hands of people who have no formal educational background in the railways and the train system in general.

One such unofficial crossing guard, Mirsad, working in Kayu Manis, East Jakarta, equips himself simply with a flag and a whistle.

" I took to guarding the crossing on my own initiative after I could no longer pedal my becak (pedicab) back in 1990.

"Before I came here, there were many accidents in this place because no one was guarded the crossing," he said.

Mirsad does not receives a salary, but rather gets tips from passing motorists.

"I can collect around Rp 15,000 in six hours," he said.

He also said he had once asked an employee at PT KAI to equip the area with a crossing gate.

"But he told me that it was an illegal crossing place," he recalled. (ind)