PT KAI cancels 7 trains due to damaged bridge

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia canceled on Thursday seven trains departing from Jakarta to Semarang, Central Java, and Surabaya, East Java, due to a damaged railway bridge in Comal, Pemalang regency, Central Java.

The spokesman for the company's Jakarta division, Zainal Abidin, said the company would refund the passengers' money in full.

All of the canceled trains travel along the island's northern coast. Four of the trains ply the Jakarta-Semarang route: the Argo Muria II (scheduled to depart at 5:20 a.m.), the Kamandanu (8:40 a.m.), the Senja Utama (6:30 p.m.) and the Tawang Jaya (9 p.m.).

The remaining three trains ply the Jakarta-Surabaya route. They were the Argo Bromo Anggrek (scheduled to depart at 9:30 p.m.), the Gaya Baru (3:45 p.m.) and the Gumarang (6:30 p.m.).

"For those who still want to travel by train, we can accommodate them on other trains via the southern line," Zainal told The Jakarta Post.

He said passengers could take a train on the southern route to Surakarta, Central Java, and then take another train to Semarang and Surabaya.

For train passengers who wish to travel via the northern coastal route, they can stop in Pemalang, Central Java, and take the company's bus to Pekalongan before continuing their journey by train, he said.

He said at least 150 passengers had canceled their trips, while hundreds of others traveled to their destinations aboard other trains.

The damaged railway bridge also caused dozens of trains traveling from Central Java and East Java to arrive in Jakarta between three hours and five hours behind schedule.

Zainal predicted the situation would return to normal within two weeks, when repair work on the bridge was expected to be completed.

"It takes a long time to repair the bridge," he said.

The bridge, which is 100 meters long and 12 meters wide, buckled 1.5 meters early on Wednesday. Zainal said the bridge had buckled an addition four meters.

A spokesman for the Semarang office of the railway company, Suprapto, told the Post the company had deployed hundreds of locals to repair the bridge. Several consultants from Japan had also been hired and were already inspecting the bridge.

He said the company had not yet estimated the cost of repairing the bridge or the losses it would suffer as a result of the canceled trains.

The Pemalang train station is estimating its losses at between Rp 5 million and Rp 6 million, the station head, Hartono, said, while in Tegal, the loss is between Rp 8 million and Rp 9 million. The losses were calculated based on unsold tickets. (jun/45)