Jokowi And KCIC President Director Meeting At The Palace Discuss Performance Evaluation And Passenger Trends

The fast train service of PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC). (Between)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) summoned the President Director (Managing Director) of PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC) Dwiyana Slamet Riyadi and several cabinet ministers to evaluate passenger trends and the performance of the bettersh high-speed train after nine months of operation.

"He wants to see how the passenger trend is, then related to infrastructure, access roads, everything is evaluated," said Dwiyana after meeting President Jokowi at the Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Wednesday, July 24, which was confiscated by Antara.

During the meeting, he said, the President also asked what support the government could provide to further support the operation of the high-speed train, which has only been opened for the Jakarta-Bandung route.

The President also discussed further cooperation with China, especially cooperation for joint evaluation of service security.

Deputy Minister (Wamen) of BUMN Kartika Wirjoatmodjo who participated in the meeting revealed that although the performance of the high-speed train was considered good, the number of passengers so far is still below the initial target of as many as 29,000 passengers per day.

"If yesterday's traffic, the high-speed train had reached 24,000 (passengers per day). This is still a little below (the target), we will continue to pursue it," said the man who is familiarly called Tiko.

He estimates KCIC could pursue the target number of passengers in the next 2-3 years.

In order to increase the number of PASS passengers, the government plans to increase the frequency of train travel from 48 trips to 62 trips per day.

"So we also add more frequencies, hopefully there will be more passengers," said Tiko.

KCIC noted that since its operation on October 17, 2023, the number of high-speed train passengers has reached 4 million passengers.

This is the first fast train service in Indonesia and Southeast Asia on the Jakarta-Bandung route and serves four stations, namely Halim, Karawang, Padalarang and Tegalluar.