Indonesian President Introduces Indonesia’s First High-speed Railway
The high-speed railway project estimated to have cost $7.3 billion will connect the cities of Jakarta and Bandung, which has historically been one of the world’s most congested travel corridors. The new rail line will travel with a maximum speed of 350 kilometres per hour and is expected to cut travel time between the cities from three hours to 30 minutes. Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo led the inauguration ceremony for the country’s first high-speed railway, a milestone for his office and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s signature foreign policy scheme. The trains had been modified for Indonesia’s tropical climate and equipped with a safety system to respond to earthquakes, floods, and other emergency conditions.
