How does the construction plan of Jakarta-Surabaya semi high-speed railway look like?

The construction plan of Jakarta-Surabaya semi high-speed railway has entered finalization phase. When the project is finished, it is hoped that the train can reduce the burden of air transport and other means of land transport.

The finalization phase in question is the study of Jakarta-Surabaya semi high-speed railway related to various needs, including the cost calculation to finish the strategic project. For this project, Indonesia was confirmed to partner with Japan.

"The new Jakarta-Surabaya railwayis confirmed to be constructed by Japan. It’s just that now we’re still asking for a review on the figures delivered related to content, local people’s involvement, and costs to be incurred," Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said, as cited from Detik Finance on Monday (January 22).

This semi high-speed railway project is included in one of the national strategic projects. The plan is to construct the Jakarta-Surabaya semi high-speed railway in phases.

"We will see how much is it, if the cost is too large, then we will construct the Jakarta-Semarang phase first. This will also improve the quality of working speed because Jakarta-Semarang is approximately 60% of the work,” the minister continued.

It is estimated that this Rp60 trillion project will finish in four years. The Jakarta-Semarang railway can be finished in two years, then the remaining time will be used to finish the Semarang-Surabaya railway.

Minister Budi also said that technologically, Indonesia would use narrow gauge with a width of 1,067 meters, narrower than the width of standard railway of 1,435 meters.

This decision was made based on the characteristics of Java Island that is crowded and already has many networks. This condition is different compared to Sumatera Island that allows usage of standard railway.

Jakarta-Surabaya route itself is about 790-kilometer long with traveling time of 9-10 hours if using a normal train. If using a car through Cipali toll road, the traveling time is around 15 hours.

However, the traveling time can be reduced if the semi high-speed train has started operating. The time needed to traverse Jakarta-Surabaya will only be 5.5 hours with the maximum speed of the train projected at 120 km/hours.

Besides reducing traveling time, the minister also mentioned another positive impact of this Jakarta-Surabaya semi high-speed railway project. National industry growth is expected to be helped by electrification that is eco-friendly and cheaper than other technologies. The people can enjoy the convenience of comfortable transportation with affordable ticket prices.

After this semi high-speed railway is finished in 2022, people no longer need to trouble themselves by driving vehicles to take a long and exhausting journey from Jakarta-Surabaya or vice versa.

People later on can make use of the semi high-speed train, while to fulfill the need of transportation in the destination city, they can make use of the easy and high-quality car rental service from TRAC.

This subsidiary of PT Serasi Autoraya (SERA) offers vehicle rental service for various needs, from vacation, business, to other personal needs.

As a company under Astra, TRAC guarantees the quality of reliable vehicles and professional driver service. Not only that, TRAC is confident to guarantee the comfort and safety of driving by offering travel insurance.

This way, it is hoped that the transportation need of the people can be fulfilled.Travel will become more comfortable with easily accessible convenience.