The minister made the statement after attending a railway coordination meeting at the Gubeng Station, Surabaya City, East Java.
"Today, we brought together relevant stakeholders to evaluate (train services) and take measures for making improvements. I would like to emphasize that safety is paramount," he remarked, as quoted from a statement received from the Transportation Ministry here on Monday.
Sumadi drew attention to recent train accidents, including those involving the Turangga Train and Bandung Raya Commuter Train in West Java, Pandalungan Train in East Java, and some other accidents on Java and Sumatra islands.
The minister affirmed that the government and relevant stakeholders in the railway sector are fully committed to ensuring a sound level of safety in train services in the hopes of maintaining the trust of people, particularly loyal customers and train enthusiasts.
"We will continue to invest efforts to make improvements, so that people will always feel comfortable and safe when using trains," he stated.
He then noted that the Transportation Ministry had prepared several measures for stepping up the safety aspect of train services, including by building double tracks and comprehensively enhancing the quality of tracks based on category 1 and 2 of the track quality index (TQI) standards in 2024.
Sumadi remarked that the ministry will also evaluate the signaling system, ensure the implementation of standard operational procedures, and collaborate with relevant parties to deal with issues related to level crossings.
Head of the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) Soerjanto Tjahjono, who attended the meeting, observed that Indonesia's railway systems have been running properly, in general.
He noted that the number of train accidents had been declining in recent years while noting that there is still room for improvement to further boost the aspect of safety.
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Translator: Adimas R, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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