Train Experience: Yogyakarta to Surabaya in a Business Coach (English)

When you heard of “Business Coach”, you might think about how luxury my experience was. 5th of March 2018, safely landed in Yogyakarta at 10 pm. My travelling shedule were supposed to start at Surabaya, but why was I happened to show up in Yogyakarta? 

The reason was very interesting. After a pretty long consideration, it was way cheaper to fly to Yogyakarta, and continueing my journey by train to Surabaya.

Business Coach in train doesn’t mean that much luxury like how an airline did. There are not that much difference between economy and business coach. The only obvious difference is that in economy coach, you will be seated with 3 person per row in one block of long seat with an upright position, while in business coach there will be only 2 person per row with the seat similar with business coach, but this time with a much more comfortable angle.

To be honest, I am more into Executive coach for a train ride. There are not that much different in price with business coach and much more comfortable with a personal air conditioning, more leg space, and I can recline the seat back however I like. I decided to choose Business coach instead because iI can save up some money for my trip, and my only intention for this train ride was to sleep, it’s a waste if I pay so much but I didn’t get to enjoy it.

My plan was to sleep throughout the ±5 hours trip, arrived at Surabaya fresh and full of energy, and then starts my adventure in Surabaya, but then everything went off track and the plan was ruined.

As it was a midnight train and it must be cold with centralized air conditioning, I prepared myself by wearing a hoodie and a jogger pants to get warm in the cold night. I was sitting on the train, looking forward for the sleep I am going to get, but, right after I get on the train, I sensed something was not right, and it was true. Some passengers said they couldn’t stand the cold and asked the staff to turn the air conditioning off.

Not only that, I was supposed to sit alone as I had checked that the seat beside mine was not booked, but as I get there, someone already took my seat, the window seat, with his backpack sitting right beside him, leaving a small gap for me to sit. Why didn’t I ask him to move? He was sleeping when I got there. At first, I thought the conductor, who always checked on the passenger’s ticket on board will ask him to move since the seat number will be written on the ticket and he was clearly on my seat, but until we arrived in Surabaya, nobody checked any of our ticket.

Sometimes I walk around to the other coach just to get some cold, fresh air as the coach I’m in was too hot. The combination of hot sauna and cramped seat totally made the trip a lot more interesting. I was awake for the entire 5 hours trip and barely getting any sleep.

Safely arrived and sleepy in Surabaya, I straight away followed my itinerary for that day (5 hours museum tour, click here), and finally able to hit the bed for 2 hours in the afternoon, what a good start!

PS: There are a lot of coaches type around Indonesia. What I am writing here in only the one that I had experienced before (I tried all three that I mentioned in the post above), there is also Taksaka Priority coach, a luxury coach back then only used by the President and the Indonesian Authority to travel, but is accessible now by the public, Sleeper Coach, with a flatbed for an overnight travel, and Economy Premium coach, a slightly cheaper coach but with almost the same facility as the executive train.

Any other coach available in Indonesia?

With burning curiosity,

Ferry William

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