This is a continuation from my post on June 3rd. My thanks again go to Faris Fadhli, who kindly sent me the recent picture.
On April 22nd, the 100th anniversary celebration of the Indonesian electric railways was held in Jakarta. Many special trains such as the old electric locomotive “Bonbon” were operated in the Jakarta area. Along with Bonbon, “JALITA" was also stood out on that day. What’s JALITA? It’s a special commuter trainset named by the Transport Minister of Indonesia in 2009 celebrating establishment of the new commuter railway company in the Jakarta metropolitan area. It had a unique tri-toned face (red, black and silver, see the top photo). There are differing opinions on the origin of JALITA. One of them is that JALITA stands for “Jalur Lingkar Jakarta”, in Indonesian, which means Jakarta Loop Line. Another one is that JALITA stands for “Jalan Jalan Lintas Jakarta”, in Indonesian, which means strolling on the Jakarta line. According to a Japanese rail-fan blogger residing in Jakarta, “Pakuan Kyuko (Pakuan Express)”, the latter is correct.
Incidentally, the original JALITA was Trainset 8613 of the EMU ex-Tokyu 8500 series (hereafter 8613F). 8613F was transferred from Japan to Indonesia as a second-hand train in 2009. It was then changed its body color in 2013. 8613F has already been retired from the track in Indonesia as well, but instead, the last survivor of the ex-Tokyu 8500 series, namely Trainset 8618 (hereafter 8618F), became the JALITA-colored train this time. You can also see what 8618F was 16 years ago in the photo below. JALITA… welcome back.
