Line eagerly awaited, but passengers wary of fares

Working from home in Bandung during the pandemic, Viona Wijaya is curious about traveling on the bullet train service operating between the city and the Indonesian capital Jakarta. The service is due to start at the end of next year.

However, she has one concern. “If the fares are too high, I will only use the service when I have urgent things to do. It depends on the situation,” Wijaya said.

When she worked in a private business office in Jakarta before COVID-19 struck Indonesia early last year, Wijaya used to return to Bandung on weekends, traveling on the Argo Parahyangan rail service, which has executive and economy class seats and runs from 5 am to 8 pm.

Toll roads also connect the two cities, with the journey taking about three hours. One airline regularly operates services between the two destinations, with flights taking 35 minutes.

The bullet train service is expected to boost the number of tourists visiting Bandung — nicknamed the “Paris of Java” during the Dutch colonial area. The city’s culinary centers, the landmark Asia Africa Conference Building and adjoining hillside and green recreation areas are among its top attractions.

Ellen Tunggal, a member of a church choir in West Jakarta, said she cannot wait to see the fast train so that she can organize a culinary tour to Bandung with friends, an activity popular with many people before the height of the pandemic.

“With this train, we do not have to stay the night in Bandung. We can go there in the morning, spend time relaxing and return to Jakarta in the afternoon,” Tunggal said.

Transportation analyst Aditya Dwi Laksana, asked whether the bullet train would lead to a serious drop in the number of passengers using the Argo Parahyangan service, said people would not use the fast train if fares were too high.

Laksana added that a light rail project underway in Jakarta will link the highspeed train station at Halim in the east of the city to other areas of the capital.

In Bandung, flyovers and underpasses will be built to ease traffic flow between the city and Tegalluar station on the bullet train route.

“It does not make sense if people spend much longer than 40 minutes reaching Halim station from their homes in Jakarta,” Laksana said, referring to Jakarta’s notorious traffic jams.

In addition to the Argo Parahyangan service, Indonesia has passenger and cargo rail routes traversing Java and parts of Sumatra.

A rail project is underway in southern Sulawesi, and there are plans to build others in resource-rich areas of Kalimantan and Papua. Railways in Kalimantan would support the new state capital planned for the country’s largest region.

Indonesia’s first commercial rail service began operating in June 1867 under Dutch rule, linking Semarang and Grobogan in central Java.