Jakarta to Bandung – Indonesia’s first high-speed rail route
In Indonesia, a 150-kilometre highspeed rail line is being built between capital city Jakarta and textile manufacturing hub Bandung.
The project is a joint venture between a consortium of Indonesian state-owned companies and China Railway International, which fended off competition from Japan to secure a 40 percent share in the development.
Indonesian authorities had previously favoured a mediumspeed rail link that would have cost 40 percent less, however, they reverted to the original proposal. Construction on the project began in 2016 and is expected to be completed in 2021, costing around $5.9 billion and providing employment for approximately 40,000 people.
Along the route will be four stations, the most significant being in Gambir, an economic centre close to Monas that is predicted to handle huge passenger numbers. Another station will be based at West Bandung, close to a newly established tourism hub in West Java.
Once finished, trains are expected to reach speeds of up to 250 kilometres per hour, carrying around 44,000 passengers a day on average during the project’s early operational years.
The major benefit will be drastically reduced journey times, the current three- to five-hour haul forecast to be cut down to just 36 minutes.
The development runs alongside recently-announced intentions from the Indonesian government to make rail travel more affordable and reduce congestion on the country’s strained road network.
As well as freezing fares, authorities and state railway company PT Kereta Api Indonesia are implementing an infrastructure, maintenance and operation agreement designed to revive old rail routes throughout
2019.