Trains save energy, ease pollution

Trains save energy, ease pollution

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As an employee of an electronics shop in Glodok, West Jakarta,
Wati, 23, counts on the city train to be able to reach her office
every day from her house in Citayam, West Java.

"Every day, I and hundreds of people living in my area take
the train to office. We don't mind if we have to stand up along
the trip as long as we reach our work place on time," she told
The Jakarta Post.

Wati said that it takes less than an hour to reach the Kota
train station from the Citayam station by train, compared to over
four hours by bus.

"You know the traffic jams nowadays. I'd be so stressed and
tired by the time I reached my work place. We simply couldn't go
to work if there was no train," she said.

Wati is one of hundreds of thousands of train commuters in
Depok, Bekasi, and Tangerang as well as Bogor whose livelihoods
depend on the city train.

According state railway company PT KAI around 500,000
passengers use city trains every day.

Train researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(LIPI) Taufik Hidayat said that trains as a means of mass
transportation should be developed to answer, at least partially,
problems including the country's increasing energy consumption,
traffic congestion, and pollution, as an alternative to simply
building more toll roads.

"Not only faster, but trains are also more economical in terms
of energy used. Train with eight carriages can take around 1,600
passengers and only consumes three liters of fuel per kilometer.
Compared to buses, which can only take 40 people, or cars with
three or four passengers, trains consume much less fuel," he told
The Jakarta Post.

Taufik, who is also the executive director of Indonesia
Railway Watch (IRW), said that according to a recent survey
trains consume an average of 1,995 British Thermal Units per
passenger per mile, or around 58 percent of the fuel consumption
of busses which stood at 3,415 British Thermal Units.

Currently, it is estimated that vehicles consume around 80
percent of the country's total fuel.

Taufik said that since almost all trains operating in the
Greater Jakarta area were electric, they produced very little
pollution.

"According to a survey on transportation in Sweden, pollution
costs of road transportation reached US$16 billion a year while
trains have an annual pollution cost of US$60 million," he said.

Jakarta is the third most polluted city in the world with its
6.5 million vehicles, mostly private cars.

Motor vehicles are the main contributors to air pollution in
the city, accounting for about 70 percent of pollutants,
including carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.

Every day, at least 138 new cars on average enter the city
streets, putting further burdens on already overcrowded roads,
most of which are community streets and lanes. Not to mention the
600,000 drivers who commute from suburban areas, like Bekasi and
Tangerang.

The latest study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) shows that the economic loss caused by the congestion now
amounts to Rp 5.5 trillion annually.

To overcome the congestion, the city administration plans to
build seven new toll roads worth Rp 23 trillion (US$2.4 billion)
connecting busy areas in the capital. But transportation experts
believe they could cause even greater congestion, saying that the
new toll roads would simply allow more vehicles to enter the
city.

Taufik said that trains were just one of the solutions to
congestion.

"It is time that the government upgrades and rebuilds trains
to attract more people to use them. Remember, KAI's total assets
are only valued at Rp 3 trillion. With Rp 23 trillion (the cost
of the proposed toll roads), the government could make KAI eight
times bigger and better than it is now," he said.