More trouble on Java train line
More trouble on Java train line
Nana Rukmana and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon/Bandung
There was another delay on the busy Java north coast railroad
line on Tuesday, which follows three recent accidents in three
days on the same line.
Patria Supriyoso, spokesman for state train operator PT KAI,
announced that the three recent accidents were the result of
technical malfunctions and not human error.
Iwan Setiawan, a PT KAI official at the Haurgeulis train
station in Cirebon regency, said the latest incident began when
the Gaya Baru Malam train was heading west to Jakarta from
Surabaya on Monday evening.
Everything was fine until the train reached the Cilegeh
station in Indramayu regency on Tuesday morning, when the crew
felt something amiss with the brakes.
Iwan said the train stopped at the small station and the crew
examined the train to find the cause of the problem. It was
discovered that the problem lay with the brake system on the
seventh of the 11 cars.
"The train crew could not find the necessary equipment to
repair the problem so they resumed the journey to the Haurgeulis
station," said Iwan.
He said PT KAI officials then decided to make the repairs at
the station, which took about one hour.
Hundreds of passengers were forced to step off the train until
the repairs were completed.
The train resumed its journey to Jakarta after the repair work
was completed. The incident did not cause delays for any other
trains.
Patria said Iskandar Abubakar, the director general of land
transportation at the Ministry of Communications, had reprimanded
PT KAI over the string of train accidents after the Idul Fitri
holiday.
It is unclear whether the government will take action against
the directors of PT KAI over the accidents.
The string of accidents began on Friday, when a Gaya Baru
Malam train derailed at 4 a.m. on the Cisanggarung bridge linking
Central and West Java. On Saturday evening, two cars on a tanker
train overturned some 200 meters east of the Tegal rail station.
The third accident occurred on Sunday in Margadana subdistrict in
Tegal, when a Kertajaya train derailed.
The accidents caused hours of delay for other trains on the
same tracks, putting out thousands of passengers attempting to
return home after Idul Fitri.
Patria said preliminary investigations showed the first and
third accidents were caused by aging rolling stock. Meanwhile, an
old railroad tie was blamed for the second accident.
"It was out of our control because most of our rolling stock
and railroad ties are too old," he said.
He said most of the trains operated by PT KAI were more than
20 years old. On top of that, only 10 percent of the 5,000
kilometers of railroad in the country is new, he said.
He said the Gaya Baru Malam economy-class train began
operations in 1965, while the Kertajaya economy-class train was
first operated in 1978.