PT KAI cancels 7 trains due to damaged bridge
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)