Poor equipment blamed for train crash
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.