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Torrential rains that poured down from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. brought road and rail traffic to a standstill in Bogor on Monday.

The sustained rain caused flooding up to 30 centimeters deep across several roads, including Jalan Tole Iskandar leading to Cibinong, bringing traffic to a crawl.

On Jalan Raya Bogor, the main road linking Bogor to Jakarta, vehicles were backed up for about two kilometers near Cibinong as a result of the flooding.

In downtown Bogor, flooding affected the main street of Jalan Dewi Sartika.

Residents reported that much of the flooding occurred because storm drains were clogged with trash and could not cope with the amount of water pouring in.

Ujang, a public minivan driver who was stuck on Jalan Tole Iskandar, blamed the authorities for failing to keep the drains cleared of trash.

“They should clear out the drains before the start of the rainy season, not after it gets under way,” he said.

Joel, a motorcyclist who got caught in the massive traffic jam on Jalan Raya Bogor, said he was forced to push his bike after one of its tires was punctured by a sharp object from a piece of trash floating in the water.

Karyo, a municipal sanitation worker who was trying to unclog one of the storm drains along Jalan Dewi Sartika, said much of the trash had been carried from further upstream.

“This whole heap of trash in the drains here came from Anyar Market and just got stuck here,” he said.

Dadang, another public minivan driver stuck in the traffic, suggested that the reason the trash was piling up there was because the authorities had built the drains narrower than the standard specifications.

“The drains here should be the same diameter as the ones on Jalan Pengadilan further upstream, so that the trash doesn’t build up over here,” he said.

While motorists struggled to navigate the flooded sections of road, the situation was not much better for those taking the train.

The heavy rain forced the regular and express trains to arrive at Bogor Station more than two hours late.

This prompted a large build-up of passengers waiting at the station, made worse by the fact that only four of the nine waiting platforms at the station provide shelter from the rain.

Ikhsan, who works as a security guard at an office building on Jalan Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta, said he had been forced to wait for hours at the station in Bogor for a train.

“The train was supposed to leave at 6:25 a.m. and I was supposed to be at work by 8 a.m.,” Ikhsan said. “But two hours later I was still waiting at the station because the train still hadn’t arrived yet.”

He said he had to ask one of his colleagues on the night shift to cover him for a coupled of hours as he struggled to get to work.

The train to Kota Station in Central Jakarta, which was supposed to leave Bogor at 7:05 a.m., was still at Depok Lama Station on its way to Bogor at 9 a.m.

Friska, a student at the University of Indonesia’s Medical School in Cawang, East Jakarta, said she had decided to take the train because she thought it would be faster than braving the traffic on the roads.

As it turned out, she said, she was still late to class.

“I had a test scheduled at school at 9 a.m.,” she said.

“But at 9:15 I was still waiting at the train station. If I’d known the train was going to be this late, I’d have just taken the bus like I usually do.”

Enjang Syarif, the deputy manager for daily operations at Bogor Station, said the delays were caused by a train breaking down earlier in the day between Depok and South Jakarta, which had pushed back the arrival of trains at Bogor.

“The problem was with a Bogor to Kota train, which left here at 5:20 a.m.. It broke down somewhere between Lenteng Agung Station [in Depok] and Tanjung Barat Station [in South Jakarta],” he said.

“It took around two hours to fix the train car and then tow it to Pasar Minggu Station [in South Jakarta].”

Enjang said the breakdown caused two-hour delays in train departures from Bogor to Kota and to Tanah Abang Station in Central Jakarta.