Indonesia has launched its first high-speed train, connecting Jakarta and Bandung, a city about 150 kilometers away. The train, known as the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed train, travels at a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour, making the journey between the two cities less than one hour long. This is a significant improvement over the previous travel time of three hours by car.
The report further mentions that this new train will feature 8 cars with the capacity to seat 601 passengers.
The $7.3 billion USD rail project is linked to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is a massive infrastructure development plan that aims to connect China with the rest of Asia, Europe, and Africa through a network of roads, railways, and ports.
The Indonesian high-speed rail project is being built by a Chinese state-owned company and is financed with a loan from China. Some experts see the project as a sign of China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia.
