"The development of Indonesia KA Argo-Light will adopt the Japan's Shinkansen system. Preliminary studies have been done," said Deputy Minister of Transportation (Wamenhub) Bambang Susantono in the National Seminar on Railways in the University of Indonesia (UI), Depok, West Java, on Wednesday (01/25/2012).
There are many investors who already exclaim their interest to explore the development of these bullet trains, which come from Japan,Korea and China. The budget is quite fantastic,around Rp 150 trillion - Rp 180 trillion. So it is quite large. We expect the fund will comes not only from the private sector but also the government," he explained.
This train will not using existing rail line, but create their own line. For this reason the initial study includes the construction of social and cultural conditions. "Sure it's a high technology,and it should be prepared as socio-cultural and psychological state of society. It has to be prepared carefully in terms of non-technical" said Bambang. Shinkansen's speed is 300-600 km/h,so the distance from Jakarta to Surabaya can be reached in 2.5 hours.
But the ticket price is still high,compare to Shinkansen, the cheapest tickets is around Rp 1.300.000 for a distance of 380 km. Meanwhile it cost just Rp. 500.000 to Rp. 800.000 for those distance with plane. Illustration: Madiun Jaya, one of Indonesia's present train which connect Yogyakarta-Madiun
