PT KAI letting commuters down

PT KAI letting commuters down

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakartans must try to forget the concept of commuter trains as a
comfortable and safe means of transportation as the state-owned
railway company PT KAI fails to provide a sufficient supply of
trains to meet the massive demand, mostly due to poor management.

Every day, especially during rush hour, thousands of
passengers squeeze into the trains with many others ignoring
safety by sitting on its roof.

"The number of trains is very limited so we fall severely
short of the high demand from the public," said Rachmadi, head of
the PT KAI Greater Jakarta division, on Thursday.

Rachmadi admitted that many trains could not operate because
of damage, and that the maintenance and repair crews were
inefficient and overstretched.

He said PT KAI had 352 passenger coaches of which only 228
were fit for operation, while the rest were undergoing repairs at
its service centers in Bukit Duri and Balai Yasa Manggarai, both
in South Jakarta.

"Even, some of those operating train cars have passed their
expiry dates, but we cannot even manage to do the regular
maintenance checks required," admitted Rachmadi.

He passed the blame over to the service center staff for
contributing to the lack of coaches available.

Rachmadi said the company's repair shops should be able to
repair three or four trains in five months, but right now, they
were only managing about two in that time frame.

He admitted that passenger demand -- over 450,000 per day --
required at least 260 operating coaches in Greater Jakarta.

Meanwhile, PT KAI spokesman Zainal Abidin revealed that many
engine cars were depreciating much faster than they should due to
overloading of passengers and aging train cars.

"Each train should be carrying a maximum of six passengers per
square meter but right they are at about 12 per square meter,"
said Zainal.

Besides, Zainal said, most carriages here were in a bad way.

Among the damaged coaches, 20 are over two decades years old.
Amazingly, the 72 coaches donated to PT KAI by the Japanese
government in October last year began operating in Japan in 1967,
but had excellent and timely maintenance for all those years.
They are expected to be able to operate here for at least another
10 years, that is, if they are similarly maintained by their new
owners.

Amid mounting public outcry for better trains, Rachmadi
revealed that his company hoped to be up to 244 operable coaches
by February 2003.

Separately, Hendrowijono, head of the Train Lovers Society
attributed the government-run railway company's poor performance
to a total absence of checks and balances from any independent
organization.

"PT KAI alone, controls everything to do with the trains
including operation, maintenance, monitoring and safety approval
for train cars, which creates opportunities for corruption and
conflicts of interest, leading to total inefficiency," he said.

The relatively tiny amount of money allocated for maintenance
accelerated train depreciation and, in turn, worsened services
for and endangered passenger lives, he said.

Citing an international convention, Hendrowijono said, the
firm should allocate at least 5 percent per year for maintenance
but PT KAI only allocates about 1 percent (of carriage price) for
maintenance.