About 6000 passengers use the LRT each weekday, taking people out of their cars and relieving the pressure on the roads in this busy part of Jakarta.
The average speed of LRT trains is 50km/h, so passengers can travel from one end of the 6km line to the other in just under 15 minutes.
The system is also fully integrated with other means of public transport. Passengers alighting at the Jakarta International Velodrome, for example, can quickly switch to the city’s rapid bus transit system, just a short walk away via a new sky bridge.
Light rail is ideal for a compact city such as Jakarta, and the perfect companion to the city’s bus network and the larger MRT rail system. The LRT is light and flexible, with a minimum curve radius of 60m on the main line, enabling trains to navigate sharp turns in confined spaces.
Navigating challenges
Building a new rail system in a city as dense as Jakarta was a challenge. There are about 10,200 people per 1km2, more than five times the number in cities such as Melbourne or Sydney. This makes land acquisition difficult, and the biggest issue was finding a suitable area large enough to accommodate the main LRT depot.
We also had to carefully examine all possible routes to minimise disruption to existing infrastructure and people, but provide maximum coverage and benefit for passengers. Through our detailed field studies, we showed how stations could be strategically built near schools, sports and shopping centres to attract large numbers of residents and families, as well as commuters.
The LRT was successfully developed from a greenfield site into a fully operational system in just two and a half years – a very tight schedule for a rail project and something never attempted before in Indonesia.