Antara, Jakarta – Director General of Railways of the Transportation Ministry, Mohamad Risal Wasal, stated that the construction project of the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train will be extended to Surabaya and will pass through Yogyakarta.
"The name [of the project] remains the KCJB, but we will continue to program this train to Surabaya via Yogyakarta," Risal said during a hearing with the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission V in Jakarta, Wednesday, July 5, 2023.
He explained that feeder trains serving the route to Bandung are available at Padalarang Station to support the bullet train as part of the intermodal integration service. The feeder trains are not provided at KCJB's final station, Tegalluar Station, due to its relatively far distance.
"With the feeder train, it takes 15 minutes from Padalarang Station to Bandung, so the total journey from Jakarta to Bandung takes 39 minutes by the fast train," Risal ensured.
He confirmed that KCJB and LRT Jabodebek will start serving passengers on August 18, 2023. The Transportation Ministry is still conducting a trial run for the KCJB.
It is certain that studies for the extension of the bullet train from Bandung to Surabaya will be carried out. KCJB is one of the government's national strategic projects as noted in Presidential Regulation No. 3 of 2016.
With the experience of building the first high-speed train in the country, the government hoped that many savings could be made. Coupled with the downstream policy, a lot of domestic materials will be used resulting in new breakthroughs.
The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train will run at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour crossing the 142.3-kilometer rail tracks. Based on the trial run, the travel time from Halim Station to Padalarang Station hits 32 minutes, while from Tegalluar Station to Halim Station takes 44 minutes. The speed exceeds the regular train's speed of up to 120 km per hour.