A deadly collision between a commuter train and a long-distance express train near the Indonesian capital Jakarta has killed at least 14 people and injured more than 80 others, with a nearly 12-hour rescue operation concluding on Tuesday after crews pried open mangled carriages to free trapped passengers. The crash occurred late on Monday night at Bekasi Timur station in Bekasi, a city in West Java province that borders Jakarta to the east, when the Argo Bromo Anggrek — Indonesia's premier high-speed express service between Jakarta and Surabaya — slammed into the rear of a stationary Jakarta-to-Cikarang commuter train. All 14 fatalities were passengers on the commuter train; all approximately 240 passengers aboard the long-distance train were evacuated safely.
According to a spokesman for state-owned rail operator KAI, a taxi appears to have clipped the commuter train at a level crossing, causing it to come to a halt on the tracks before the express train struck it. The impact was absorbed almost entirely by the last carriage of the commuter train — a women-only compartment — where all the victims were located. Rescue workers from the military, fire brigade, national search and rescue agency BASARNAS, and the Red Cross worked through the night, using angle grinders and specialist extrication equipment to cut through the severely damaged metal framework. Mohammad Syafii, the head of BASARNAS, said the rescue effort was complicated by limited working space and extensive structural damage. "There are some victims who are alive to this minute and we're hoping to extricate them, but they're still pinned by the train material," he said at an early morning press conference, before declaring the operation complete later on Tuesday.
Survivors described moments of sudden terror. Sausan Sarifah, 29, who was admitted to RSUD Bekasi hospital with a broken arm and a deep leg wound, recalled hearing two announcements as passengers prepared to disembark. "It all happened so fast, in a split second," she said. "There was no time to get out, and everyone ended up piled up inside the train, crushed on top of one another. Thank God I was on top, so I could be evacuated quickly." At the station, chaotic scenes unfolded as rescue workers called out for oxygen tanks, ambulances formed long queues with lights flashing, and hundreds of bystanders looked on in shock.
President Prabowo Subianto visited injured patients in Bekasi on Tuesday, offered condolences to victims' families, and ordered an immediate investigation. He also directed authorities to improve safety at rail crossings across the country. "In general, we do see that many railway crossings are not guarded," he said, announcing plans to build an overpass in Bekasi and repair unguarded crossings nationwide. KAI said it would cover all medical expenses for the injured and funeral costs for the deceased.
The accident highlights persistent safety concerns on Indonesia's railway network. Transport accidents are a recurring problem across the vast archipelago nation of over 270 million people, where ageing infrastructure and poorly guarded level crossings have contributed to a long history of rail incidents. A 2010 collision in Central Java killed 36 people, and a 2015 crash involving a commuter train and a minibus at an unguarded crossing in Jakarta killed 16. The most recent major rail accident, in West Java in January 2024, killed four crew members and injured around two dozen people.