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Jakarta. Every day, thousands of commuters board the old trains that chug from the capital toward its satellite cities of Bogor, Bekasi, Depok and Tangerang.

One of the cheapest modes of transportation available, trains are still preferred by commuters and are more popular than the TransJakarta busway system.

But they are woefully unreliable, and even dangerous, as evidenced by the recent spate of train accidents.

On Monday, a train suddenly stopped on the tracks in Depok, causing a domino of delays and leaving thousands of commuters stranded for hours. The reason? A power supply disruption.

A top official at rail operator Kereta Api Indonesia, however, said the appalling conditions of the capital’s commuter trains were unlikely to change soon.

“Ideally we would want to have our railway system as a primary mass transportation mode in Greater Jakarta, which would seriously relieve traffic gridlock.

"But our city does not have enough power supply in order to have trains functioning properly,” Mateta Rizalulhaq told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

Jakarta’s limited road network accommodates 20 million to 24 million trips every day, and in the Greater Jakarta area, the number of daily commuters ranges from 40 million to 45 million.

Of those, between four million and 5.4 million commute between the capital and outlying areas.

Kereta Api Commuter Jabodetabek (KCJ), a subsidiary of KAI, currently has 386 train cars serving up to 500,000 passengers a day using 100 megawatts of electricity, KCJ corporate secretary Makmur Syaheran said.

“This year we are going to add 118 cars and we are going to need an additional 100 MW. We have sent letters to [state electricity company] PLN, but there has so far been no response yet,” he said.

“For 2015, our target is to serve three million passengers per day, and for that we will need 287 MW,” he added.

Another part of the problem appears to be upkeep. “Maintenance of facilities and infrastructures are the responsibility of KAI and the Transportation Ministry,” Makmur said.

Media reports that made national headlines on Tuesday said at least four out of six train-related incidents since February 2009 were caused by infrastructure malfunctions.

Reports have stated that of KCJ’s 386 cars, only 320 were functioning while the rest were defective. These sidelined cars have been known to be used despite repeated warnings.

The Globe reported in June last year that a spot check led by Tundjung Inderawan, the director general of railway transportation, was conducted at the Depok maintenance center.

Dody Heryadi, the head of the center, said at the time that if the existing safety standards were strictly enforced, nearly all the trains at Depok would have failed to pass inspection.

Subagiyo, an official at the Depok maintenance center, said drivers would only move their trains back and forth inside the garage each day to check brakes before they started picking up passengers on their routes.

According to the proper inspection forms, there are several items to be examined when checking brakes, including the condition of the brake valve, emergency valve and parking brake.

The Transportation Ministry’s railway department has also earmarked Rp 3.7 trillion ($392 million) to revamp the troubled commuter lines linking Jakarta to surrounding areas, but experts say the task ahead is anything but easy.

“Trains are not like cars. We need to think about revamping stations and tracks, how to handle long queues, and will existing railway lines hold additional load. For the near future we must spend on improving existing infrastructure,” Mateta said.

Danang Parikesit, chairman of the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI), on Tuesday urged the Ministry of Transportation’s railway directorate general to produce a more comprehensive blueprint for railway transportation.

“In 2008 the directorate made a modern blueprint of the Greater Jakarta commuter trains, however the model lacked several supporting systems such as the power capacity,” he said.