Looking at the railway transportation
in Indonesia always gives us a negative perception of the poor undertaking. People
always associate this mode of transportation with the bad image of illegal ragged
shelters covering the railway banks and semi-legal stalls occupy the station platform and parking lots. Crowded passengers squatting
on the top of the carriages worsen the already bleak image, which by any
standard violates the very basic safety rules.
The problem is so
eye-catching and persistent. Why? The root of the problem should not come from
the railway mismanagement alone, but largely from the public attitude that the public
service should be cheap no matter how big is the operation cost of the related
service. Probably there is still residual mindset among Indonesian
people that in the independence era, people are free and should not pay or pay very
little for the public services they need.
And
what consequences we get from this misleading belief? The railway situations in
the country become degrading because of significant reduction of the length of
the railway tracks as a result of dismantlement almost all side tracks preserving
only the main tracks along Java island and little parts in Sumatra. Barely new
tracks and new stations have been built in the country since the independence
day.
The main
cause of this gloomy situation is clearly triggered by the imbalanced
competition between railway transportation versus car transportation.
However, society’s wrong attitude that train tariff should be very
cheap worsen the situation. The tariffs which are far lower than the operating
cost cause the railway company hardly capable of replacing any broken
components forcing the management to sacrifice the passenger comfort and the image
of such mode of transportation.
The situation makes many officers
who is responsible to handle the operation lose their innovative spirit. The railway business environment in the country is so degraded that
it becomes a public secret that many railway employees feel at ease dealing with
the stalls and the shelter's owners to gain some regular petty cash as though
their behavior is a normal one.
Such
tattered picture of the railway conditions has dragged on for years,
part because of imbalance between cheap ticket policy versus government subsidies.
This pro-poor attitude is the right policy put in the wrong place. The tariffs plus
the government subsidy should be enough to meet, at least, the operational cost
and if possible to improve and develop the carriage armada and the station
conditions.
Enough
is enough. Even a public service such as railway business requires modern
management and ambitious, dynamic and innovative leadership. Good examples
could be drawn from quite successful public services such as post office,
state-owned pawn shops and in larger scale Garuda air carrier. Under the current
action that railway management has taken, it seems that our wish to have better public transportation will come true.
Various
efforts have been taken to eliminate illegal passengers sitting on the roof of
the carriage though resistance still can be found here and there. Even at
certain spot, the railway entrance gates with electric wire are erected so that
people don’t dare to sit on the carriage roof.
Railway
officers have managed to demolish kiosks at the station platforms and parking
lots, especially those in big cities. The bigger step is still needed, however, to
demolish shelters constructed along the rails, as they might endanger the
railway passage.
The
implementation of E-ticket system is certainly a big leap in modernizing Indonesian railway. The board of management realizes
that under the condition where many passengers have no tickets or holding used tickets have put the company
into a big loss. The crowded carriages worsen the condition where conductors are impossible to execute their duties to check all passengers' tickets.
But now, under E-ticket
system passengers can only enter the entrance gate or get out of the exit gate
by introducing the ticket on or into card-reader installed in the gates guaranteeing
that all passengers have a ticket with them.
With the use of E-ticket, it
can easily accommodate the progressive tariff as a function of voyage distance which is fairer and more economical
for the passengers. The passengers who don’t want to have a long queue, multi-trip
E-tickets which last for months are also available.
The train management has set
electronic means at 63 stations in Jabodetabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Depok and
Tangerang). In the first days of its implementation, many passengers are not
accustomed yet to the new system causing long queues before the entrance gates.
However, we believe that people will be very quick to adopt such an E-ticket system as it has long been
implemented in many countries without a problem.
Congratulation, it is better too late than never!
