Perumka asked to further improve railway service

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto urged state-owned railway company Perumka yesterday to further improve the quality of its services in order to cater to middle- income people in Greater Jakarta.

"Better quality of service is badly needed to attract the public, especially those from a middle-income level, to change their mode of transportation from private vehicles to trains," Haryanto said at the inauguration of the renovated Tanah Abang Railway Station in Central Jakarta.

The minister also simultaneously inaugurated yesterday the electrification of the Tanah Abang-Serpong railway tracks and a new diesel train serving the Tanah Abang-Serpong route.

He said that railway service in Greater Jakarta was primarily used by lower-income people. "The renovated station is expected to help attract executives, with the ultimate goal of reducing the use of private vehicles," he said.

The smaller number of private cars, Haryanto said, would definitely help reduce one of the municipality's biggest headaches -- traffic jams.

"In order to achieve the objective, spacious parking lots are being built at major railway stations to enable passengers to park their cars there and continue their travels by train," he said.

He asked Perumka officials to pay greater attention to the improvement of railway services, ranging from parking availability and ticketing systems, to the punctuality of the trains' time schedules.

Haryanto further said that there was a sharp increase in the number of people who prefer commuting by train, but on the other hand, train capacity was still limited.

"The imbalance between demand and seat availability ends up in the overcapacity of trains, especially during rush hour," he said.

He said that the growth rate in the amount of railway passenger cars in Greater Jakarta reached only 30 percent per year, far below the 50-percent growth rate in passengers.

Such conditions poorly support the government's plan to improve railway service, particularly in terms of safety, security and cleanliness, he said.

"Overcapacity forces overcrowding of railway cars. Besides being unsightly, it is also a danger to passenger safety," he said.

Perumka's president, Soemino Eko Saputro, said that the renovated Tanah Abang Station, the electrification and the new train enabled the company to raise train frequency to Serpong, Manggarai and Kota Stations from 52 trips to 80 trips.

"These three things also enable Perumka to increase transportation capacity from 40,600 passengers per day to 62,094 passengers per day," he said.

The Tanah Abang Station renovation, which cost about Rp 91.74 billion (US$37.6 million), was part of 26 programs covered in the Greater Jakarta railway system master plan.

Renovation took place because the old station was no longer capable of accommodating the increasing number of passengers. Under the renovation project, the station's passenger capacity rose from 4,850 people per hour during rush hour to 7,600 people per hour.

Besides increasing capacity, renovation was also directed at supporting future development.

The renovation project was conducted by three contractors: Tekken, PT Wijaya Karya and PT Udinda Aneka Sarana Joint Operation. (hhr)