by Ektada Bilhadi Mohamad.
In October of last year, PT. Kereta Cepat Indonesia Cina (KCIC, or Indonesia-China High-Speed Rail Company) officially opened to the public, their new high-speed rail line that connects the cities of Jakarta and Bandung, branding it under the onomatopoeic name Whoosh (short for Waktu Hemat, Operasi Optimal, Sistem Hebat or Timesaving, Optimal Operation, Outstanding System). The development project, a joint venture between Chinese and Indonesian state-owned firms, is not only the first high-speed rail service in Indonesia, but also the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.
The railway crosses through four stations, with its Jakarta terminus being located in Halim Station, situated in East Jakarta, where it then passes through Karawang Station, Padalarang Station, and finally ends its journey at Tegalluar Station. All told, Whoosh covers 143 km of distance and with a maximum operating speed of 350 km/h, the line takes roughly 45 minutes to complete a full journey. By comparison, the conventional intercity rail, Argo Parahyangan, which has long become a staple for commuting between the two cities takes roughly two hours and fifty minutes to conclude its journey.
Although one may be keen to recognize that Whoosh doesn’t stop in Bandung Station, the station that other conventional intercity lines typically pass through. Indeed, though often referred to as Kereta Cepat Jakarta-Bandung (Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Rail) the line does not actually stop in Bandung city itself, with passengers headed for the city having to stop at Padalarang Station (situated in the regency of West Bandung) before taking a feeder train that takes them to Bandung Station. Unfortunately, the accompanying feeder train utilizes technology akin to conventional commuter lines. As such, even though the journey from Halim to Padalarang takes roughly only a half hour on the high-speed rail line, the feeder from Padalarang to Bandung Station takes another twenty minutes or so, stretching the overall journey from Jakarta to Bandung to around an hour.
Despite this rather awkward need to transit to reach Bandung Station, the overall experience is rather impressive. Boarding from Halim Station, one would be greeted with a truly expansive station whose architecture harkens more to that of Soekarno-Hatta Airport’s modernized Terminal 3 than it does to other large stations for conventional intercity railways, such as Jakarta’s Gambir Station. One advantage this station does have over the older Gambir Station is that it is directly accessible through public transport options, being connected with the LRT Bekasi line through the accompanying Halim LRT Station.
Compared to older conventional intercity rail lines, the Whoosh also delivers a facelift to both the exterior and interior of the train. The aerodynamic shape of the train’s snout arguably makes it deserving of the “bullet train” moniker that the Japanese high-speed rail lines are often referred to as, and as for the interior, even the basic economy class seats are quite a step up from its conventional intercity equivalents in terms of comfort and luxuriousness.
Public enthusiasm for the project has kept ticket sales in the initial weeks of the line’s opening at a high, as evident from the 15,000 passengers the line averages from October 2023 to October 2024. However, sales have not fully met PT. KCIC’s expectations, they aimed to serve 30,000 passengers per day (BBC.com). Perhaps the relatively high ticket prices serve as a barrier of entry for many would-be passengers, as a basic economy seat on the Whoosh would set you back Rp. 250.000, whereas an equivalent seat on the aforementioned Argo Parahyangan only costs Rp. 150.000, not to mention the other staple commute option in travel minibuses which can often go for even cheaper than that.
It’s interesting to note that the first phase of this project ran behind schedule due to logistical delays (originally the planned opening was for 2019) that also caused it to overrun its budget by nearly US$ 1.2 billion. This in turn caused the Indonesian government to request another loan from China to help cover the overrun on top of the initial loan from the China Development Bank that covered most of the original estimated US$ 5.5 billion cost for the project. It’s no surprise then that the Indonesian government is eager to push profits from this project as soon as possible, especially if they were to follow through on their plans to extend this project to span from Jakarta to Surabaya and connect many of the major cities in Java.
It is no question that the introduction of high-speed rail in Indonesia is in itself, an incredibly remarkable feat. Yet, its relatively prohibitive price tag might indicate that the overarching question regarding the viability of this project, is unfortunately not even a question as to whether it is something the Indonesian people want or need, but whether it is something that a good portion of the populace can even access in the first place.
Sources: https://www.bbc.com/indonesia/articles/c89wd4nwv7lo
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