MTI Says KRL Operational Cost May Rise due to New Trains Procurement

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of the Railroad Division at the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) Aditya Dwi Laksana assessed that several issues will arise if state-run Commuter Line or KRL operator PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI) procures new trains. One of them is the high cost of procurement.

“If later KCI has to use domestic products, new trains, the value can be 10 times of used trains,” said Aditya via a phone call with Tempo, on Wednesday, March 8.

The next issue, he continued, is that KCI's operational costs will increase in the future, and so he questioned who will bear it. If it is passengers, it means the fare will rise, but if it is the government, it means from the public service obligation (PSO).

“Meanwhile, the Transportation Ministry is trying to suppress the PSO because it takes a very large portion of the state budget (APBN),” Aditya explained.

Aditya thus asked the government to comprehensively consider the procurement of new trains. Apart from that, he mentioned, there are also suggestions to not fully use new trains but, for example, 80 percent of new trains and 20 percent of used ones.

“[It can be applied] gradually. The issue is actually related to preventing users from being stranded if trains have stopped operating, but there has been no solution from the government,” said Aditya.

PT KCI Secretary Anne Purba said the company planned to import used trains from Japan to replace trains that will be retired starting this year. She claimed that stakeholders from ministries, observers, and commuter line user communities in a Forum Group Discussion (FGD) agreed that the plan is the main option.

MOH. KHORY ALFARIZI

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