Head of the House Commission V Special Visit Team   Syarief Abdullah Alkadrie in a visit to the Bandung Railway Station during a special work visit to Bandung, Thursday (09/02/2023). Photo: Bunga/nr

Chairperson of the House Commission V Special Work Visit Team Syarief Abdullah Alkadrie strongly urged that the Jakarta-Bandung regular trains (Argo Parahyangan) not be abolished amid the operation of the Jakarta-Bandung High Speed Train (KCJB). Alkadrie made the statement in his visit to the Bandung Railway Station to inspect KCJB supporting facilities and infrastructure, due to begin operation in mid-2023. According to him, the two clearly have different targeted customers.

"We know that high speed trains and regular trains have different segments, in terms of price and so on. The House has asked the Ministry of Transportation not to decommission regular trains when high speed trains begins operation. Regular trains are intended for people who are more concerned about fares, while fast trains are for those who are more concerned about travel time," he argued during a special work visit to Bandung, Thursday (09/02/2023).

Furthermore, Alkadrie also believed that if regular trains were stopped, it would have an impact on road congestion since those who chose to spend less on public transports would then switch to other alternatives such as buses or travel. According to him, the more modes of transport, the better, because then people would have more options to choose from.

"By not decommissioning regular trains, at least it will reduce traffic congestion, especially on roads, because when regular trains are unavailable, automatically customers of middle and lower economy will switch to land transportation such as buses, shuttle buses, and so on, so this will create congestions on roads. Which is why I would ask that in line with the operation of KCJB, regular trains may continue to operate," concluded the National Democrat (NasDem) Party Legislator.

The House Commission V hopes that the Ministry of Transportation can make fair decisions by considering the needs of all levels of society so that the assumption does not grow that people are forced to switch to high speed trains. Because the mode of transportation is indeed provided a variety of alternatives so that people can choose the mode that suits their needs. (blf/aha/agl)