Well... I'm HERE! Today, we're FINALLY in Indonesia!
After many months of planning and repeated requests and comments, mainly
from you lovely Indonesians, it's time... Halo and welcome to Jakarta, the capital
and biggest city on this nation of over 17,000 islands which has a the world's fourth
largest population, at over 275 million people! I'm starting with a BANG today...
We're going to riding the BRAND NEW 'Whoosh' 350kmh high-speed
service from Jakarta to Bandung. Well, I *say* from Jakarta, it's
actually a bit of a trip to get to the starting point at Halim,
in the city's eastern suburbs. You need to take the Bekasi Line to
Halim LRT Station, which is adjacent to the High-speed station. This also connects
to the Airport Rail Link in Central Jakarta. This is the newest line on
the Jakarta transit system, and features fully automatic, driverless trains. Halim is an impressive station.
Having recently just been to China, you can see that it's heavily influenced by
their way of doing things, which is certainly not a bad thing. In fact they financed
most of, and built the whole project! As this trip was made during the pre-launch 'free
trial' stage, before tickets went on general sale, not everything is fully open, however there
is a nice display detailing the history of Indonesian railways, and a few food and drinks
stalls, with a seating area in the entrance. Automatic ticket machines can also be
found here, but these were not yet in use. Heading through to the security area, a cursory
bag x-ray and personal metal detector check are carried out. There is no limits on liquids, and
nothing has to be removed, unlike at an airport. We are then in the departure area.
This is equipped with a few displays, a Whoosh merch shop, and a large seating area. This free trial has been super
popular with Indonesians, and has been at full capacity on every
service, on every day it has operated. A queue has already formed well before boarding
commences, 30 minutes before departure. To pass through the gate line, just insert
your ticket, and don't forget to collect it, and don't lose it, as you'll
need it to exit at the other end. Step-free access is provided from street to train
by lifts. There are also escalators available. I'd just like to say a massive thanks to
my friend Adrian, who sorted me out these tickets. You can check him out on Twitter,
for all things Indonesian transport related. Now we get our first glimpse
of the marvel of engineering that is out ultra high-speed chariot for today. It's a KCIC CR400AF, basically a
rebranded Chinese Fuxing CR400AF, which has a design speed of 400kmh (250mph), and
a regular in-service speed of 350kmh (217mph). To see my review of China's more up-to-date
'BF' version of this train, where I travelled in their top-tier private suites, with
lie-flat beds, click the link above now. I absolutely LOVE the aesthetic of these trains.
I think their looks show they mean business, not to mention exuding exactly what they
are, the Fastest Train in the World! Level boarding is provided, and this is also
the case with all new highspeed stations. Turning left, and we enter VIP or First
Class. There is a small 9-seat section of this located at each end of
the train, in a 2+1 layout. All seats on the whole train are fully reversible,
so you will always face the direction of travel, or you can make a bay of 2, or 4
if you're travelling in a group. Information displays, and TVs are
located on the far bulkhead wall. The seats are a comfy leather number,
with great padding, and are well-shaped. There is also a winged and padded headrest. As you'd expect, legroom is excellent. There is an adjustable footrest
which is carpeted on the rear, so take your shoes off if you use that side :-) A seat-back pocket is available for storage, and there's one power socket and
2x USB-A ports per seat pair. A tray table can be deployed from the armrest,
and is quite sturdy enough for working on. The seat also reclines a good
enough amount, using this button. Up above, you'll find coat hooks, and
a full length blind on the windows, but no personal reading lights. Overall, a great product. Obviously
not to the level of the Chinese suites, but then you don't need that
for short journeys like this. Let's check out today's route from
Jakarta Halim, to Bandung Tegalluar. This is going to be a fast paced review, as
the trip is a very short one, so let's go! We depart precisely on-time at 15:35. This route is 142km (88mi) in distance, and is scheduled to take us
just 46 minutes of travel time. Contrast this to the legacy route, which
takes a minimum of 2 hours and 50 minutes, albeit this is from city centre to city centre. As I mentioned, I didn't pay for this
ticket, however here are the current prices. There's a bit of confusion as
to if these are currently on promotion, and whether they will raise later on this
year. I guess that depends on the demand. VIP/First Class is 600,000 IDR [Indonesian
Rupiah] (£31.05, €35.65, $37.80) Business Class is 450,000 IDR
(£23.29, €26.52, $28.35) and Premium Economy Class is just
150,000 IDR (£7.76, €8.84, $9.45) The cheapest fare is currently similar to
an average fare on the original trains, which take nearly four times as long. Therefore I believe this gives good
value for a brand new highspeed train, especially in Premium Economy Class. We'll
check out the other classes shortly, by the way. We spend the first few minutes making our way out of the Jakarta suburbs
on this huge elevated viaduct. In fact 54km (33mi), or over a
third of today's route is elevated, and 16km (10mi) is in tunnels. The remaining 72km
(45mi), or just over half, is at ground level. All onboard announcements are made
in both Indonesian, and English. Some of them have some
questionable English phraseology, but I'm sure that will be sorted out
when it's brought to their attention. If you want AD-FREE early access to every
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JOIN button in every video. Thank you! It doesn't take long before the onboard
displays are showing we have reached these trains impressive operating speed of 350kmh. Only two countries in the world can
achieve this in regular passenger service, and the other is China, which
has the world's biggest highspeed network. The ride quality is exceptionally smooth,
and if you weren't looking out the window, you'd struggle to get any perspective of
speed. It's one of the best I've ever been on. Here's a look at the second tier
'Business Class' seats. They are comfortable and wide posh red leather
recliners in a 2+2 configuration, which are more than sufficient for this trip.
All the amenities of VIP Class are included too. One note, at the time of editing, no
on-board food or drinks service has been announced for the premium classes.
Hopefully something will be included to justify the price different, as
opposed to just the seat upgrade. And here's the budget option for these trains,
Premium Economy, which is in a 3+2 layout. This is the same seating density as China
and India use on their lower tier classes and in my opinion its ok for smaller
people, but the actual seat width is too narrow to get comfy, if someone of
average size is in the adjacent seat. They are quite soft, and also
recline, have good legroom, tray tables and the same power
sockets as the other classes. These seats make up 555 seats of
the 601 on this train. There are 28 in Business Class, and 18 in VIP/First Class. Two western style toilets
are available in every coach. These were in a great condition, very clean, fully
working and stocked up with soap and toilet paper. The future vision of the Indonesian
government, is that the highspeed network will extend to Surabaya in Eastern
Java, with a travel time less than 3 hours. Currently it takes around 8.5 hours by
train to cover the 725km (450mi) between Indonesia's capital, and second largest city
of the world's fourth most populous country. Currently one station on the line,
Karawang, remains unfinished, so our first stop today is the first
of the Bandung stations, Padalarang. While this is located 15km (9mi)
to the northwest of Bandung city, a free feeder train is timed to connect
both arriving and departing passengers from the highspeed trains, in to
and from Bandung Central Station. It does seem a bit curious to me that they
didn't build the Bandung highspeed station more centrally, rather than building
one on each side of the city. This will become even more apparent when you see
the location of the line's terminus station. Maybe I've missed something, so let me know
in the comments if you know why this is. As you can see, there's a lot of people
awaiting our arrival, cameras at the ready. Something I never realised about Indonesia, is
the fanaticism with trains is very prominent. There is a large railway
community, both off and online, many of whom I've interacted with over the
last few months about my Indonesian travels. You've all been so friendly and helpful, so
I thank you for this amazing hospitality. Padalarang is another impressive, newly built, elevated highspeed station, which is adjacent
to the conventional station on the Jakarta to Bandung mainline where the feeder train to
central Bandung departs from, as mentioned. On departure, we are treated to a
beautiful display out the window, as the sun begins to set over Java,
affording some beautiful #TrainWindowViews. I will have many more Indonesian adventures
coming up over the next few months, but here's a sneak peek of what I've been up
to, and the videos to expect on the channel. Don't forget to subscribe and be one of
the first to watch them upon release! We now parallel the highway, as
we skirt around the southern side of Bandung on the final stetch of today's journey. The vista's are now becoming much more rural
again, and you might be asking yourself, why did they build a station here? Well
another question I've been asking myself... Anyway, we arrive precisely on-time at 16:21. In summary, I had a great
time onboard Indonesia's, Southeast Asia's, and indeed the Southern
Hemisphere's first highspeed railway. It certainly is a marvel of engineering
and technology to cut 2 hours from the journey time on this existing
route of just 2 hours 50 minutes. Or have they? When you account
for the connections at both ends, from city centre to city centre, it's
more like 2 hours total travel time. Ultimately, I feel that the line
must be extended to Surabaya, via Jogyakarta and Solo City if in the
long run it is to be a commercial success. It's a great start, but really they need to
commit, and push on with the full length of the route to really see the economic and
environmental benefits that highspeed rail can bring, by shrinking domestic travel
times and getting people out of planes. I would also love to see how they will
distinguish the premium classes in the form of onboard service, rather
than just having a better seat. I think these trains are great.
Comfortable and super fast and I really hope that this project is a
success for Indonesia. Hopefully I can come back in 10 years and travel
the length of Java in 3 hours. As you'll see in the last clip, this
station really is in the middle of nowhere, with amazing panoramic
views of mountains and fields. There is just a small local café and
shop bordering it outside the boundary, and a minor road connection, and not
much else. Who is it for? Answers on a postcard... or in the comments
section below if you prefer... Have you been on any trains in
Indonesian before? Which one did you try and on what route? How did you find it? Please like the video and subscribe to the
channel if you haven't already, it really helps! By the way, I'm always open to new
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I publish a new review every Friday. Thanks for watching
and I'll see you next week!
