Railway operator urged to improve efficiency, upkeep

Railway operator urged to improve efficiency, upkeep

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Four employees of state-owned railway operator PT KAI were seen
chatting inside a ticket booth at Cawang station, East Jakarta,
on Friday morning while two others sat at their desks serving
customers.

As hundreds of commuters from Bogor, Depok and Pasar Minggu in
South Jakarta alighted and hurriedly approached the exit gate,
one of the employees went out to check the passengers' tickets.

Most of them slipped by him and went out without showing their
tickets. His colleagues didn't bother to help him.

At each of the stations along the Bogor and Kota route, many
employees were seen standing idly chatting to one another or in
groups.

With around 32,000 employees nationwide, many say that the
idle employees at PT KAI are the source of inefficiency in the
company.

Train researcher Taufik Hidayat from the Indonesian Institute
of Sciences (LIPI) said that 60 percent of KAI's total expenses
of around Rp 2.2 billion went to salaries while the remaining 40
percent was divided between several types of expenses, including
maintenance.

"Certainly, the funds used to maintain the existing equipment
are far from sufficient. We have repeatedly urged KAI to improve
its efficiency but little action has been taken so far," he told
The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He said that KAI had lowered its spending on maintenance to be
able to cover the cost of salaries and to keep up its profitable
image although it had to sacrifice its quality of services and
public safety.

"This poor maintenance has caused the recurrent accidents and
delays that we have experienced in the last few years," Taufik
said.

At least 52 people have died in 60 train accidents across the
country this year up until June, including the recent accident in
Pasar Minggu that claimed at least four lives and injured 600
other passengers.

The government said earlier that it would take Rp 11.6
trillion to provide spare parts and maintain the existing system.

The KAI's inefficiency can also be seen by the fact that the
company reported only Rp 4 billion in profit last year. Its total
assets are worth around Rp 3 trillion.

"The profit is nothing compared with its assets. It just that
the government has requested the company to stay profitable
(while sacrificing maintenance)," Taufik said.

Taufik, who is also the executive director of Indonesia
Railway Watch, said that ticket and cargo revenue covered almost
96 percent of the total expenses with the remainder was covered
by revenue from rental space and parking.

He argued that KAI should maximize its ticket revenue to be
able to increase its maintenance budget.

A KAI official estimated that only half of Greater Jakarta's
total daily 450,000 passengers bought tickets, which range from
Rp 1,000 to Rp 3,000.

As building fences along the tracks requires a lot of money,
Taufik proposed that many of KAI's idle employees could be
mobilized to help in ticket screening to raise the company's
revenue.

The head of PT KAI's Greater Jakarta operations Rachmadi said
that his office had conducted programs to improve people's
awareness of buying tickets as well as routine operations to
screen people entering and leaving the station buildings.

"We have tried also to punish our officials who take money
from people without a ticket on board. They have to set an
example for passengers," he told the Post.