New effort to deter Indonesian train roof riders
Source: Agencies |
January 18, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
INDONESIA has gone to imaginative extremes to try to stop commuters from illegally riding the roofs of trains - hosing down the scofflaws with red paint, threatening them with dogs and appealing for help from religious leaders.
Now the authorities have an intimidating and possibly even deadly new tactic - suspending rows of grapefruit-sized concrete balls to rake over the top of trains as they pull out of stations, or when they go through rail crossings. Authorities hope the balls, which could deliver serious blows to the head, will be enough to deter defiant roof riders.
"We've tried just about everything, even putting rolls of barbed wire on the roof, but nothing seems to work," said Mateta Rizahulhaq, a spokesman for the state-owned railway company PT Kereta Api. "Maybe this will do it."
Trains that crisscross Indonesia on poorly maintained tracks left behind by Dutch colonizers six decades ago usually are packed with passengers, especially during rush hours.
Hundreds seeking to escape the overcrowded carriages clamor to the top. Some ride high to avoid paying for a ticket. Others do so because "rail surfing" is fun.
The first dozen or so balls were installed yesterday hundreds of meters from the entrance of a train station outside the capital, Jakarta.
But there was a glitch: the chains were too short, leaving a gap of about 40 centimeters between the balls and the roofs of the passing train carriages. Rizahulhaq said adjustments would be made.
"I was really scared when I first heard about these balls," said Mulyanto, a 27-year-old shopkeeper, who rides between Bogor and Jakarta almost every day for work.
"But I don't think it'll last long," he said. "They've tried everything to keep us from riding ... in the end we always win."
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