Railway firm to make profit

Railway firm to make profit

BANDUNG, West Java (JP): The state-owned railway company Perumka could make a profit of Rp 10 billion (US$4.56 million) in 1995 as the company will start operating a number of express trains later this year, a senior official says.

"Perumka broke even in 1994," Director of Land Transportation Soejono told reporters after presenting awards for the winners of a railway writing competition yesterday.

Perumka is scheduled to operate JS950 and JB250 trains in August, when the country celebrates its 50th anniversary. JS950 is an express train, to be operated by Perumka in cooperation with a private company, PT Lorinta Mitra Guna, which will link Jakarta and Surabaya of East Java with a traveling time of nine hours. JB 250 will link Jakarta and Bandung with a two hour traveling time.

A company spokesman, Djoko Martojo, yesterday said that Perumka could make a Rp 10 billion profit this year as the public is enthusiastically awaiting the introduction of the express trains.

He said Perumka's revenue reached Rp 213 billion during the first nine months of 1994, as compared to only Rp 244 billion in all of 1993. (pet/icn)