Even Medan is already ahead of us with their train service to and from Kuala Namu Airport

It might be decades too late, but we’ll hopefully soon have the option to travel to the Soekarno-Hatta Airport by train. That is, of course, assuming there are no setbacks to the current project.

PT KAI First Director Edi Sukmoro said they are building a 12 km railway connecting the KRL Commuterline from Batuceper station to Soekarno-Hatta Airport. He said PT KAI could finally begin work on the project after procuring the required land for the planned railway.

“We can start work this April,” Edi said at the Jakarta Railway Centre yesterday, as quoted by Tempo. 

Edi said the railway construction should take about a year so he is hopeful that it will be operational by April 2016.

Previously, the Ministry of Transportation announced it would start construction on the railway in July 2014 with an expected completion date of July 2015.

But the ministry couldn’t go through with the project as locals who lived along the planned railway refused to let it be build on their property. Fortunately, the locals have changed their minds.

“In principle, the locals now accept that a railway is being built on their land. They rejected it before,” Edi said.

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