Jakarta. State-run railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia, or KAI, said Wednesday that the company remained upbeat that extending the debt-ridden Whoosh high-speed train would not be a pipe dream. 

President Prabowo Subianto has ordered the extension of the multi-billion-dollar high-speed train, as the retired army general wants the tracks to reach Banyuwangi in the eastern part of Java. The rail system currently connects the metropolis Jakarta with the West Javan capital of Bandung. 

“There is no issue with the high-speed train's operations. Because its occupancy continues to be on the rise. The president has indicated that we must expand it to Surabaya, and even Banyuwangi,” KAI President Director Bobby Rasyidin told the state-run news agency Antara in Beijing on Wednesday.

“We will carry out [the orders]. We will do it,” Bobby said.

Operating the Whoosh train is the Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), a joint venture of Indonesian and Chinese consortia. On the Indonesian side is the PT Pilar Sinergi BUMN Indonesia (PSBI), which encompasses four state-run enterprises. KAI holds to 58.53 percent stake in PSBI. The project has been making headlines over the past few months as it gets derailed by a hefty Chinese debt.

“There is nothing wrong with KCIC. It really makes our country proud. Not many countries out there can have a high-speed railway, but Indonesia has it,” Bobby said, while adding that the United States and Eastern European nations don’t have one.

He added: “Praise be to God. The company is operating profitably. That’s why we are pretty confident on continuing to run it.”

It cost Indonesia around $7.3 billion to construct the train that helps slash Jakarta-Bandung travel time from 3 hours on a car ride to just 45 minutes. The Southeast Asian country took out loans from the China Development Bank to cover 75 percent of the costs. The project, however, registered $1.2 billion cost overruns. Indonesia has entered talks with China to restructure the debt. Being the majority shareholder of PSBI, KAI is bearing the brunt of the financial stress.

Like other state-run enterprises, KAI is under the wings of the sovereign wealth fund Danantara. The fund will focus on the operational aspects of Whoosh, according to Danantara’s chief operating officer Dony Oskaria. The government will focus on strengthening the infrastructure needed to support the railway system. 

In the first 10 months of 2025, Whoosh’s ridership reached over 5.1 million passengers. As many as 4.8 million people rode the railway last year.

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