Whoosh, Indonesia’s first high-speed rail, opened to much fanfare in October 2023. The line, which stretches 143 kilometers from Jakarta to Bandung and reaches speeds above 300 kilometers per hour, has been intensely scrutinized in the years since. Led by Chinese firms and financed primarily through the China Development Bank, the project was delivered late and over budget. The eventual price tag was a little over $7 billion.
Whoosh has lost hundreds of millions of dollars since becoming operational, and many have questioned the sustainability of the debt as well as whether the very large costs can be justified given the fact that Jakarta and Bandung are not that far apart and were already well-served by existing modes of transport including buses, toll roads, and conventional rail. Here on the blog, we have been following this project for several years. So did 2025 shed any new light on these issues?
Whoosh is structured as a joint venture called PT Kereta Cepat Indonesia China or PT KCIC. 40 percent of the joint venture is held by Chinese firms, and 60 percent by Indonesian firms through an entity called PT Pilar Sinergi BUMN Indonesia (PT PSBI). The two main Indonesian partners are state-owned railway operator Kereta Api Indonesia and state-owned construction company Wijaya Karya, which also participated in the railway’s construction.
