Jakarta, Trains and Power Outage

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Passengers await a Jakarta commuter train at Sudirman Station in Central Jakarta during a blackout on Sunday (4/8/2019). The major power outage that hit Jakarta and its surrounding area disrupted transportation and economic activities for millions of residents.

More than six hours of power outage in the capital city leads to many stories. As various public services and activities relying on electricity were affected, Jakartans were scrambling for solutions.

Greater Jakarta’s electric commuter train service, for instance, stopped once the power from state electricity company PT PLN was disrupted. The public transportation service that uses environmentally friendly fuel was severely affected by the power outage.

“I had to take care of something in Bogor so I hopped on the commuter train from Manggarai Station to Bogor Station. The train stopped at Universitas Pancasila Station and did not resume operation,” said Baskoro, 40, from Rawamangun, East Jakarta.

An officer from commuter train operator PT Kereta Commuter Indonesia (KCI) asked passengers to find alternative means of transportation. Their purchased train tickets were to be refunded. “I did not care whether the purchased tickets would be refunded or not. This is about public service. When they asked passengers to find other alternatives, would there be enough buses to accommodate train passengers?” Baskoro asked.

He tried to book a ride-hailing service. However, due to a surge of demand near Universitas Pancasila Station, the fare skyrocketed. Baskoro became increasingly frustrated when communication networks were also disrupted. He could not contact his friends and relatives on his cell phone.

“Many passengers decided to hop off the train and find other transport. There were also errors with ride-hailing services as the network disruption meant that the applications could not calculate distances and fares,” said Baskoro, who decided to return to Rawamangun after scrambling for a taxi with other passengers.

Other commuter trains stopped between stations. One of them was a train from Tanah Abang heading to Serpong, which stopped between Kebayoran and Pondok Ranji stations, about 100 meters before Pondok Ranji Station. Things went quiet inside the train as the buzz of electricity disappeared.

Moments after making an announcement about the disruption through the train’s public announcement system, train officers asked passengers to open windows manually to let air in.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

People queue to buy water from a tank truck at a water refill base in the Kemandoran area, Central Jakarta, during a blackout on Sunday (4/8/2019). The major power outage that hit Jakarta and its surrounding area disrupted domestic activities for millions of residents.

About 15 minutes later, train driver Junaedy and several railway security officers walked through the train carriages. “Power went out, including in people’s homes. If you hop off the train, please walk to the car up front and hop off through the door at the driver’s compartment,” Junaedy told passengers.

Some passengers immediately followed the instruction but others remained seated, hoping that the electricity would return soon. “It looks like the power outage will be long. If you want to hop off the train, you are welcome to do it but please be patient,” an officer said.

Train passenger Budi decided to disembark as there was no news when the train would resume operations.

At Pasar Minggu Station, Mulyani, 50, slumped with her two children. They were heading home to Bojonggede in Bogor. Without the train, Mulyani did not know how to get there. No bus goes directly to the area where her house is. She would need to take a bus to Depok and then find another bus to Bojonggede. It was going to be more expensive and take longer.

“I better just wait for the train to resume operation. If we have to take the bus, I don’t know the routes,” Mulyani said at about 5 p.m. She had waited at the train station since 1 p.m. At 10 p.m., the train service had yet to resume operations.

PT KCI’s vice president of corporate communications, Anne Purba, said that 240 train services were cancelled by the power outage. On weekends, the trains served an average of 808,336 passengers a day.

Evacuation of 3,410 passengers

Meanwhile, MRT operator PT MRT Jakarta disembarked passengers from MRT trains and evacuated stations on Sunday. In total, 3,410 passengers were taken out through all stations. Four MRT trains stopped operating when power went out.

KOMPAS/HERU SRI KUMORO

A martabak (stuffed fried pancake) seller uses candles for lighting in the Nusa Loka area of BSD city, South Tangerang, amid power outages in Jakarta, West Java and Banten, following disruptions at the Suralaya steam-fired power plant on Sunday (4/8/2019).

MRT operations stopped between 11:50 a.m. and 8 p.m. Afterwards, PT MRT Jakarta resumed train services free of charge until midnight.

Before the MRT resumed operations, Transjakarta bus services were offered free of charge to serve passengers who could not travel on commuter and MRT trains.

When power went out, some turnstiles at Transjakarta bus stops were affected.

Apart from public transportation, traffic lights were also affected by the power outage. Fortunately, road traffic in Jakarta was not too high on Sunday and there were no reports of severe traffic jams.

The power outage also affected the capital’s pipeline water services.

The power outage on Sunday showed how dependent we are on electricity and how fragile our electricity network is. (IDR/HLN/DEA/JOG/FAI/ART/DAN)