Poor equipment blamed for train crash
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Analysts blamed a lack of modern equipment and a lack of professionalism as the major cause of the increasing number of train accidents, including the latest one in Rangkasbitung, Banten, which killed three people, injured 15 others and virtually destroyed the two trains on Thursday morning.
Hendrowijono, the head of Masyarakyat Pencinta Keretaapi (Train Lovers Society), an organization concerned with train- related issues, told The Jakarta Post here on Friday that the train problems facing Indonesia include improper maintenance, lack of spare parts, mismanagement and lack of professionalism among staff.
Currently, some 10 percent of PT KAI trains uses obsolete technology and equipment, which is no longer suitable for present conditions, Hendrowijono said.
PT KAI continues to use old trains while the train industry no longer produces them or the spare parts needed. To repair the trains, PT KAI has to rely on its employees' resourcefulness, he added.
"Those trains are too dangerous to be operated," he told the Post.
Hendrowiyono's statement was supported by Mitsuru Takahashi, a Japanese mechanic who currently helps PT KAI with train maintenance.
"I have found that there are not sufficient spare parts for such trains here," he told the Post through a translator, adding that there were too many obsolete trains still operating here.
Hendrowijono asserted that PT KAI had failed to develop employee professionalism, particularly with its engineers. The company's hiring system is not need-based, they only hire when the financial conditions are right for them, he added.
Meanwhile, Heru Sutomo, the director of the center for transportation and logistics studies at Gadjah Mada University, urged the transportation ministry and PT KAI to take serious efforts to stop the rampant occurrence of train accidents here.
According to Heru, the government had assigned the ministry to manage railway tracks in 1999 while PT KAI was assigned to handle train operations.
However, the ministry then turned around and asked PT KAI to also manage the tracks, citing its lack of experience.
The ministry, therefore, has yet to form a railroad track oversight body, which plays an important role in operating trains around the country. "Comparing it to the human body, the train system functions like a complex nerve system," Heru stressed.
"It is nonsense if officials merely blamed the engineers for all the fatal accidents in the country," he remarked, adding that an engineer is actually "blind" while operating a train in Indonesia's current system because he has to follow the signals given to him and all the lives of the passengers depends on the people giving the signals.
Heru strongly urged the government to privatize PT KAI so that professionals from other countries can operate the system, while PT KAI remains as a railway management company and not as an operator.
"I believe that if private companies handled train operations, the situation would improve immensely because they (private operating companies) will always try to enhance their services and safety as a way to raise income," he said.