With a bit of luck, you can cover the 35 km that separate the business centre of Jakarta of theSoekarno-Hatta international airport in just one hour. But very often it takes a good hour and a half or more to get to the airport. But there is light at the end of the tunnel, with the airport inaugurating its first dedicated rail link this December.
The line will be inaugurated by Indonesian President Joko Widoyo. The train will run 124 journeys per day and should serve the Manggarai station to Jakarta, with stops in four stations on the course. You'll need 55 minutes to the airport and the fare will be 100,000 Rupiah, equivalent to 6.80 euros. Initially, the train will end its journey at Sudirman Baru station, until work is completed at Manggarai station. Manggarai is a major railway junction in South Jakarta, located on the outskirts of the city. six kilometres from the business district from the Indonesian capital. Trains will run from 3.20am to 10.30pm every day. The railway authorities estimate that 33,000 people will use the train every day.
As good things never come in threes, the airport has also launched its new "Skytrain", an automatic shuttle linking terminals 2 and 3 at the airport. Garuda and its partners use Terminal 3, while the other international airlines are based in Terminal 2.
The rail era is finally in full swing in Indonesia. Jakarta is the second airport after Medan to have a dedicated line. Next year, Solo airport will be linked by train, while Yogyakarta will also benefit from a rail link in 2019. Projects are also under way for to Surabaya airportthe country's third largest airport with 20 million passengers.
