Night trains to start next month

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned railway company's (Perumka) greater Jakarta office will start operating night commuter trains on the Jakarta-Bogor route next month.

The office's head, Eddy Sasongko, said these night commuter trains would cater to workers who started work in the evening and finished late at night.

"I have often seen for myself the Jakarta-Depok-Bogor trains which depart the Kota station at 9.00 p.m. are always crowded with passengers. So beginning next month we will operate more commuter trains which depart from Kota station at 9.30 p.m." Eddy said.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the new Pasar Minggu station in South Jakarta, Antara reported on Monday.

He said trial runs would be carried out early next month before the fasting month. "If it turns out the trains are fully packed during the trial runs, we will continue operating the trains."

Eddy said one problem that might arise was a lack of train drivers willing to work during nights. "But Perumka is currently training a number of young train drivers."

He said Perumka had enough trains. "We just received four train cars from PT INKA, and the company will soon provide 25 more cars," Eddy said.

He said the number of passengers using trains in Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi (Jabotabek) was increasing by the day. "In 1994 the number of passengers recorded averaged 178,000 per day. The following year it rose dramatically to 235,000, and this year the latest data shows the number is 235,000."

The Jabotabek Perumka office collected Rp 3.3 billion per month from train tickets, Eddy said.

He said it was only a matter of time before the long-awaited Jakarta-Serpong-Merak Express would start operating. "We are just waiting for the Minister of Transportation's instruction."

He said it would take only two hours and 30 minutes for the express train to travel from Jakarta to Merak. (bas)