Unlike Jokowi Intensively Builds Toll Roads, Anies Wants To Expand Railways

Presidential Candidate 2024 Anies Baswedan (ANTARA)

Presidential candidate number 1, Anies Baswedan, revealed that he prefers to expand the operations of railway networks in Indonesia as access to transportation.

Anies' view is different from President Joko Widodo's (Jokowi) policy, which during the last two periods has intensified the construction of toll roads of up to thousands of kilometers.

This was conveyed by Anies in an online presentation at the Indonesian Transportation Community National Working Meeting, Wednesday, December 6 evening.

"We hope to further activate the inter-regional railway line, especially on the island of Java, there are many railroad lines that need to be reactivated," said Anies.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta views that it is necessary to increase the number of train fleets operating.

Thus, the intensity of the departure of the fleet per day is still slightly improved. This, continued Anies, will also change the habits of people who have preferred to use private vehicles.

"We will be able to move more people from private vehicles to train-based public transportation. This is specifically in Java," said Anies.

Meanwhile, outside Java, Anies wants additional intercity rail construction to increase the intensity of travel by train.

According to him, activating lanes and adding inter-regional rail networks is more efficient and has a maximum function than toll roads.

"This investment can actually be smaller than building toll roads, having a higher safety, then the effect of pollution is also lower, and will be able to build a higher sense of equality compared to being based on private vehicles," he added.