YOGYAKARTA – Researcher at Center for Transportation and Logistic Studies Universitas Gadjah Mada, Fajar Saumatmaji, said that carriage train as a transportation means for distributing goods and logistics has not been used widely by people. This is due to the minimal number of this vehicle apart from the delivery process which takes a long time. “Due to the long distribution, many people opt for trucks to deliver goods,” Fajar said in the Train-based Carriage of Goods seminar held at the Center on Tuesday (26/7).
Fajar’s observation showed that there are four locomotives normally being used for carriage train. The train consists of 137 carriages with a capacity of 14 tons and each aged almost 45 years, 29 carriages with 30 ton capacity aged over 30 years, and 35 carriages over 40 years. Almost all of them are not in good maintenance with corroded walls and low speed.
Fajar proposed that in future there would be train development by increasing load capacity with the increase of locomotive and carriage capacity, also, increased product safety and ease of loading and unloading. “Loading and unloading are more efficient using mechanical system that runs effectively at 2.09 billion rupiah per year,” he said.
Improvement of train patterns and means should also be followed with increased speed of goods up to 35 km/hour. With carriage train, according to Fajar, the cost can be saved up until 8.25% as compared to using trucks.