Govt to restore aging railway facilities

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is set to prioritize the rehabilitation and maintenance of old railway facilities and infrastructure in order to improve railway traffic safety and services, the Minister of Transport said.

Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal also said 465 kilometers of some 3,200 kilometers of railway track on Java, along with more than 780 kilometers of 1,340 kilometers of railway track on Sumatra were already 70 years old.

He said the age factor was contributing to the increasing number of railway accidents on the two islands in the past few years.

"The construction of more than 200 km of double track connecting Yogyakarta with Solo, Kutoarjo and Cirebon has been completed, while the one connecting Cirebon and Kroya is underway," Jusman said in his opening address at the Asia-Pacific railway workers' conference here Monday.

"The rehabilitation program will be conducted in phases due to the limited state budget."

A representative for the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), Hanafi Rustandi, called on the government to speed up rehabilitation work to minimize train accidents in the future.

He said of 20 train accidents that happened in the first semester this year, 30 percent were caused by the poor condition of trains and railway networks.

Another 20 percent had something to do with the poor condition of supporting facilities.

Hanafi said however he acknowledged the issuance of a government regulation on pension adjustments for railway employees following a long negotiation between employees and the management of state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api (PT KA).

ITF Secretary for the Asia-Pacific region Sigeru Wada said the rapid rehabilitation of poor railway facilities was needed to restore public confidence in PT KA's service and the government.

"The railway service should be developed as an alternative for an efficient and safe transportation mode, particularly on Java," Wada said.

He said strong coordination between the government and local authorities in Greater Jakarta to seek a better solution to problems of traffic congestion in the region was needed.

He said the current transportation mode should be strengthened by improving services of commuter trains and monorails that transported travelers to and from certain transportation centers.

Jusman called on businesspeople to invest in the planned construction of cargo trains in resource-rich Sumatra and Kalimantan to serve the mining sector on the two big islands as mandated by Law No. 23/2007 on railway transportation.

"The government is inviting the private sector to participate in the planned construction of railway transportation connecting Tanjung Enim with Tarahan, Kertapati and Tanjung Api-api in South Sumatra and that linking Samarinda with Balikpapan, Bontang, Banjarmasin, Palangka Raya, Tenggarong and Kota Bangun in Kalimantan," he said.

"The government also plans to construct a railway transportation connecting Pontianak with Singkawang, Sambas and Kucing in East Malaysia."

Jusman also said several local investors had shown interest in investing in the cargo train development project.