44 Years Of Vacuum, Today Pauh Lima Padang Station Starts Operating Again

Padang City Pauh Lima Station, which is again active in serving passengers after a 44-year hiatus (ANTARA/HO BTP)

The Directorate General of Railways (DJKA) of the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) through the Class II Padang Railway Engineering Center (BTP) together with PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) Divre II West Sumatra officially operates Pauh Lima Station after a 44-year hiatus. Head of BTP Class II Padang Supandi said the operation of this station with the Sibinuang Train Relations of Pauh Lima - Padang – Naras which took effect on Wednesday, March 1. According to him, this operation is the first history of train travel carrying passengers, after previously being traversed by cement freight trains from Indarung to Bayur Bay since 1979. In addition to the operation of the relationship to Pauh Lima, an additional station is also carried out, namely Pasar Usang Station, which is an inactive station. He said that the addition of this service was to improve transportation services to people in West Sumatra. “ Previously, the Sibinuang train service route only arrived at Padang Station. Today, the service line is extended from Naras Station and will end at Pauh Lima Station. Vice versa, ” he said in Padang, Antara, Wednesday, March 1. According to him, the extension of the Sibinuang train crossing is an instruction from the Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi and a form of DJKA's commitment through the Padang Class II BTP in improving services to the people of West Sumatra considering that the mobility of people from and to Pauh Lima is very high. This is an instruction from the Minister of Transportation in 2021 so that there will be train services up to Pauh Lima Station. This cannot be separated from the high mobility of the community because the Pauh Lima area is close to campuses and industrial areas,” he said. Previously, in 2022 BTP Class II Padang had increased railway infrastructure starting from the improvement of Pariaman Station, Cimpuh, Usang Market, Lubuk Buaya, Air Tawar and Alai. Meanwhile, for this year, BTP Class II Padang will make improvements at Pauh Lima Station and Kampung Jua. “ With this operation, it is hoped that public interest in using trains will also increase the occupancy of Sibinuang Train as public transportation. Not only that, in the future trains can become the main mode of transportation for the community and can reduce congestion in West Sumatra,” he said. Meanwhile, Vice President of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) Divre II West Sumatra, Sofan Hidayah said the Sibinuang train serves train trips with the connection of Pauh Lima &ndash Station; Padang &ndash Station; Naras Station (PP) or a total distance traveled about 75 kilometers for one trip. At this time, not all Sibinuang train trips serve departures and passenger arrivals from Pauh Station five and are expected to the KA user community to pay attention to the latest Sibinuang train departure schedule, or can directly check through the KAI Access application. With these changes, the Sibinuang train travel schedule has also changed due to the changing train travel time while the train ticket price still applies the usual ticket price. "The train that uses the Sibinuang series provides 424 seats for B2A, B3A, B6A, B7A, B34A, and 340 seats for B1A, B4A, B5A, and B8A trains. For ticket prices of IDR 5,000," he said. Pauh Lima Station is a station located close to Andalas University Campus (Unand) and in addition to the general public, it is hoped that later by extending relations and adding this station, it can help the mobility of students who want to travel both to campus and to the city center. "For train customers who want to use the Sibinuang train, they can book tickets about 24 hours before the departure schedule through the KAI Access application or three hours before departure at the station counter," he said.