Reflections on the Human Condition - Api-fellowships.org

The results of Yamanashi Maglev Test Line are:
• Dec, 1997: Recorded the world’s highest unmanned
running speed (550km/h);
• April, 1999: Recorded the world’s highest manned
running speed (552 km/h);
• Dec, 2003: New Word Record speed of 581 km/h
for a manned train; and
• Implemented tests of two trains passing each other
at a relative speed of 1.003 km/h, each train
composed of three cars.
DISCUSSION
Comparison between the Indonesia Railway and the
Japanese Railway
Based on the theory, there are three factors that
cause an accident: unsafe condition, unsafe act, and
unpredictable cause (as example disaster, earthquake,
flood, etc). The biggest proportion comes from unsafe
act (85%), after that unsafe condition (13%), and
then unpredictable cause. The prevention program has
hierarchy of controls, there are engineering control,
administrative control, and personal control.
The engineering control is a control that is applied
to the problem resource, for examples are enclosure,
substitution, etc. Administrative control is a control that
is applied when controlling in engineering is insufficient.
It would be to manage time and to make farther distance
between the worker and the source of hazard. Personal
control is the last control when the previous control
has been ineffective. This control usually gives Personal
Protective Equipment (PPE), training, or education to
increase the awareness of occupational health and safety
among the workers.
Some basics differentiation between Indonesia Railway
and Japanese Railway are:
• Unsafe condition is still the main reason in railways
accident in Indonesia, therefore preventive action
is still focused on improvement of equipments and
facilities. Meanwhile, Japan Railway is no longer
facing unsafe condition problem. The problem
has been left for 25 years. Many research and
technology development have been done to solve
these problems in Japan. Nowadays, Japanese
scientists are researching about unsafe act done
by driver and eliminating the risk comes from
unpredictable condition.
• Another differentiation is that all Japanese Railway
have double track while Indonesia Railway does
not have completely.
• Japanese Railways purvey their train with protective
•
THE STATE, DEVELOPMENT AND GLOBALIZATION
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safety devices while Indonesia Railway does not.
Japanese Railways have electric train with engine
in every car while Indonesia Railway still are using
diesel locomotive, especially for inter-city. Electric
train is only used in the inside city area with the
engine only available on the front car.
For what we have learned from Japanese Railway,
certainly there are some good inputs for Indonesia
Railway. If we want to make a bench mark with Japanese
Railway as a whole, it is still impossible because we
still have a lot of things behind the Japanese Railway.
One of them is the Indonesian government policy.
Indonesian government policy does not treat railway as
a public transportation. On the contrary, Indonesian
government prefers to build highway but the quantity
and the quality of cars that operated are not controlled.
Besides that, consumptive behavior of Indonesian
people increases the number of cars on the street year
by year. This situation is worse with no restriction for
old car to operate.
However, there are some results that we could take
as a reasonable implementation in the near future.
First, facility improvement for the driver cabs. Many
equipments and tools do not work properly. Second
is the improvement of the signal facility. There are
some signals that do not function anymore, especially
the yellow signal. Considering the high number of
accidents, protective devices need to be applied in
Indonesia Railway. The kind of protective devices,
which could be applied immediately, are ATS and ATC
on each block. Furthermore, it is important to develop
Centralized Traffic Control (CTC).
CTS provide the traffic control centre with information
on the situation of all track sections and permit the
centre to control train routes directly. The heart of the
centre is a number of centralized display and control
panels, connected to stations and train by various types
of equipments: radio equipment, command telephones,
train schedule recorders, train number display unit, etc.
This equipment is use for immediate communication
between train and station to get or give information
about train condition and passed track.
It is also important to develop a research center about
train similar to RTRI in Japan. RTRI in Japanese
Railway becomes truly effective since many things
could be done and invented to reach high performance
in safety in the Japanese Railway.
Previously, the organization of Indonesian Railway was
under The Directorate General of Land Transportation.
Ref lections on the Human Condition: Change, Conflict and Modernity
The Work of the 2004/2005 API Fellows