Indonesia is inaugurating Southeast Asia's first bullet train, a significant component of China's Belt and Road infrastructure initiative.
This project is set to drastically reduce travel time between Jakarta and Bandung from three hours to 40 minutes.
The high-speed rail, named "Whoosh," is of Chinese make and will seamlessly link Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, with Bandung, the densely populated capital of West Java province, reported the Associated Press.
I’ve lived in Bandung, and with the rainfall they get in West Java often leading to landslides that collapse the existing rail line to Jakarta, the maintenance costs will be higher than one might expect. Still, Indonesia has amazingly cheap goods and labor. I expect this high-speed rail to suffer accidents in the coming years however.
The entire point of civil engineers is to pick a right of way that avoids these issues. Hopefully, they did their job.