Priok rail station to be expanded
JAKARTA (JP): Plans are in the making to expand facilities at the Tanjung Priok railway station by adding a new route for passenger trains, an official of state-owned railway company Perumka said yesterday.
Perumka's Jakarta Operations Office chief, Eddy Sasongko, refuted earlier press reports saying that Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto wanted Tanjung Priok station to be used as a container terminal.
Antara news agency quoted the minister as saying Wednesday that he wanted Perumka to reactivate the Tanjung Priok railway station for use as a freight and container railroad transport terminal.
"The minister's instruction to us says that the Tanjung Priok station should have additional routes for passenger trains, and not for containers," Eddy told The Jakarta Post. A new route currently being planned is between Jakarta (Priok) and Banjarnegara, Central Java.
According to Eddy, the Tanjung Priok station is still being used for passenger and freight trains. However, facilities are at present available only for economy class travelers from Jakarta to Semarang and Surakarta, Central Java.
The only route available at present for the transportation of freight by railroad, Eddy said, runs from Gedebage in Bandung, West Java, through the Tanjung Priok station to the Pasoso railroad terminal about one kilometer further toward the harbor.
"At present freight transports run at an average of four times a day, but we can increase this to six," he said.
Impossible
Eddy said it was impossible to turn the Tanjung Priok railway station into a container transport terminal because it was not equipped with container transportation facilities. Furthermore, he explained, the electric wires running above the tracks for the electric trains would be in the way of the cranes that would be needed to move the containers.
According to Eddy, the Pasoso terminal on the other hand could be used for containers as there are no electric wires there.
"So far, container loading and unloading activities occur at the Pasoso terminal and not Tanjung Priok station," Eddy said. He added, however, that Perumka was planning to open a container railroad transport service from Pasoso to Surabaya. (01)