Indonesia Scraps High-speed Train

• 31 December 2015
• Local News
• 754 Views

The Indonesian government has cancelled the planned $5.3b, 150km high-speed train project between Jakarta and Java, opting instead for a cheaper medium-speed option.

The project had seen an intense bidding process between China and Japan for the contract to build the line which would have carried trains at up to 300km/h.

“Indonesia is just the first battlefield between China and Japan. There are other countries that would be interested in similar projects so the stakes are high,” commented Rizal Ramli, chairman of the Indonesian Bureau of Logistics.

Rini Soemarno, the state enterprises minister said that Japanese requests for government guarantees and government loans to build the line were too burdensome for Indonesia, and had not been sought by China.

The Indonesians decided that not only were the proposals too expensive – with state financing better spent on other infrastructure projects – but that the route was too short to justify a high-speed train. The revised medium-speed train is expected to bring savings of 40 percent on the initial projected costs and Chinese and Japanese companies remain interested in bidding. Construction is expected to start by the end of the year.