Train Ride at Alun-Alun Bandung

The photo: A train ride for children at Alun-Alun Bandung (Bandung City Square).

As I said in some of my previous posts, Alun-Alun Bandung is a crowded and lively place. A lot of activities take place here, this train ride being one of them.

Alun-alun Bandung is a park by designation, but it looks more more like a open air market where vendors offering all sorts of things can be found. Located right at the front yard of Bandung Grand Mosque, it may look and feel like an odd appendix to the mosque, especially to a foreigner. But to those who are familiar with our tradition, this may not be as strange as it looks.

The juxtaposing of the mundane (the market) and the holy (the mosque) in an alun-alun  (city square) is by tradition a symbolic spatial orientation, where the mosque is placed at the western edge of the square and the market at the southern edge. However, the current situation with Alun-Alun Bandung is very different. Instead of being placed a square apart, the market has moved into the square, therefore making it looks like part/an appendix of the mosque. Where the market was - at the southern edge of the square - is now an abandoned and ugly looking building that used to be a department store.

I'm still using my toy camera to take this picture. That's why it looks like the way it is.

Washing the Train

Trains too need be washed and kept clean. I just didn't know how until I saw it being done sometime ago when I got off the train at Stasion Hall, Bandung's main train station, from a trip to Jakarta. Some workers use long hoses to spray the cars, some apply soap/cleaning agent, and some scrub them using brushes with a long arm to reach the top parts of the cars.

On Board Argo Parahiyangan

I'm on my way to Jakarta this morning. And this is the train I'm taking: the executive class of The Argo Parahiyangan.

There used to be two train services that connected Bandung and Jakarta: Parahiyangan and the Argo Gede. Early this year, however, the Parahiyangan service was discontinued and was attached to The Argo Gede. Hence the name 'Argo Parahiyangan'.

The Indonesian railway company (PT KAI) decided to merge the services because of the steep competition it was facing from shuttle bus services that could offer better fares and faster travel time between Bandung and Jakarta since the opening of Cipularang toll highway.

This is a mobile upload. My apology if the picture quality is not that good. I took the photo with my mobile phone's 2MP camera and uploaded it right after I took it.

Ghost Train

The car of the economy-class KRD commuter train traveling its last trip in the evening is dim and grim like a ghost train. Despite its look, however, it's relatively safe. I often use it to get home in the evening because it is the cheapest and fastest means of public transportation to get to the suburb from the city center.

A Super Train

There are a number of trains that connect Bandung and its eastern and western suburban rural areas. These are what I'd fondly call "super trains" because they can and do carry anything and everything: people, farm produce, and sometimes even aminals.

The green bundles you see stacked at the doorways are banana leaves ready to be transported to the markets in the city center.

Locomotive Engineers

I live in the suburb and even though I don't like driving very much in this overcrowded city, I take the car or motorbike to go to work. Only every now and then do I take the KRDE Baraya Geulis commuter train, especially when I am not in a hurry and don't have to be at a particular place on time. (Baraya Geulis is clean and comfortable, but it runs only six trips a day and is quite often delayed, so as much as I want to, I can't rely on it.)

A few days ago, I took this train and was sitting in the front-most car where the engineer cabin/cockpit is. There were only a few passangers in the car, so I could get close to the engineer cabin and took this photo from behind the glass window.

Locomotive engineer is called with different names in the English language: railroad engineer, train driver, train operator, and engine driver. In the Indonesian language, they are called masinis.

On Board Parahiyangan Train

This is the view on board the Executive Class of Parahyangan train that serves Bandung - Jakarta - Bandung route.

There are three classes of trains that serve Bandung - Jakarta - Bandung route. They are The Argo Gede (First Class), Parahyangan Executive Class, and Parahyangan Business Class. The Argo Gede runs 6 trips per day (8 trips at the weekend). Parahyangan - both the Executive and Business Classes, which are on the same trains, - runs 6 trips per day with an additional trip scheduled when necessary. Bandung - Jakarta vv train trips normally take about 3 hours and 10 minutes.

For a complete Bandung-Jakarta-Bandung train schedule and fares, you may refer to the website of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI). PT KAI, by the way, is a state-owned company and the only train operator in Indonesia.