Six months after it opened, the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway has carried 2.56 million passengers. Operator PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China (KCIC) announced the figure on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.
KCIC is a joint venture of Indonesian and Chinese state-owned firms. It built the line and runs it.
From 14 trips a day to 52
Commercial service began around mid-October. Since then the trains have made 7,050 trips and covered more than 1.26 million kilometers. Daily departures have grown from 14 to 52, and seats on offer have gone from 8,400 to over 31,000 a day.
The busiest single day brought 21,537 riders. On that day, 99.6 percent of seats were filled. The railway passed 2 million passengers in early March.
KCIC said it leaned on China’s long experience with high-speed trains to run and maintain the line, including through heavy rain and typhoons. It also brought in a dynamic fare policy, reworked the schedule and upgraded station facilities.
What it means for travel
The line is the first of its kind in Indonesia and in Southeast Asia. Designed for 350 km per hour, it covers 142.3 km and has cut the Jakarta to Bandung trip, in West Java province, from more than three hours to about 40 minutes.
Septian Hario Seto, deputy minister at Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs, said the railway has moved travel between the two cities off the highway and onto rails. “I am confident that in the future, our mobility pattern will evolve from individual transport to a more mass transport-oriented approach,” he said.
