And the winner is … nobody: Indonesia scraps high-speed railway project after fierce bidding war between China, Japan

In a stunning conclusion to heated discussions over whether Japan or China should build Indonesia’s first high-speed rail project, Jakarta abruptly scrapped the entire project and announced it was instead eyeing a medium-speed train service for the route.

The revelation came after President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo hinted earlier on Thursday that China’s proposal, which did not require a financial guarantee by Jakarta, might have been chosen over Japan’s, citing financing concerns.

But Coordinating Minister for the Economy Darmin Nasution told reporters after a five-hour meeting with other ministers on the rail project that the president decided the high-speed service is now not needed on the proposed line connecting Jakarta and the West Java provincial capital Bandung.

Nasution said that the link is relatively short at around 150km, not sufficiently long for the high-speed train to sustain the envisaged top speed of 300km/h, adding that the cost for the slower service would be significantly lower.

“Although the speed could be 300km/h, the train would not be able to reach the maximum speed, because before it reaches the speed, the brake has to be put on,” Nasution said.