China’s high-speed railway in Indonesia is adding trips – but debt could hold back the gravy train

When it turned six months old in mid-April, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway had moved 2.56 million passengers, made 7,050 trips and covered 1.26 million kilometres (783,000 miles), China’s state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported.

The report quoted system builder and operator PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia-China, a joint venture with investment from state-owned firms in both countries.

This month the trains increased their regular schedule to 48 trips per day from 44 after a review of ridership trends, the Jakarta Globe reported. Service started at just 14 trips per day.

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The railway, branded “Whoosh” – its red and silver trains can move as fast as 350kph – is expected to continue attracting travellers who live near the four stations, including one outside the capital Jakarta and one near Bandung, a tourist city 158km (98 miles) to the southeast.

But ridership over the past six months cannot predict whether the railway’s popularity will be sustainable and wide-ranging enough to turn profits, analysts said.

“There is a possibility that passengers lose their excitement, that they stop using this train and go back to their old style of commuting,” said Siwage Dharma Negara, a senior fellow with the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

So noteworthy was the railway that Indonesian President Joko Widodo was present for the launch of the US$7.3 billion project in October.

The railway boasts travel times of 40 minutes from beginning to end, versus three to four hours by normal train or road. Fares between 150,000 Indonesian rupiah and 600,000 Indonesian rupiah (US$9.4 to US$38) are seen as affordable for the middle class, and