Indonesia’s first high-speed railway — a 140-kilometer Beijing-backed project connecting Jakarta and Bandung — has become a “gold standard” of bilateral cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said of the 6-month-old line.

The “Whoosh” high-speed train, a prestige project for Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, reached 2 million passengers last month, according to Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), the Indonesian-Chinese consortium that operates the train.

“The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway has become a gold standard of high-quality cooperation between the two countries,” Xi told President-elect Prabowo Subianto on Monday during a meeting in Beijing, according to a statement from China’s foreign ministry.

The railway has four stations, and trains can reach a maximum operating speed of 350 kph. Including a ride on a feeder line, travelers can reach the central area of Bandung, a popular tourist destination, from Jakarta in less than an hour.

Since the commercial launch on Oct. 2, the frequency of service has been increased from 14 trips per day to 40, and to 48 during holiday seasons, KCIC said. As of March, the Whoosh was carrying 19,000 to 21,000 passengers per day, an increase of 20% since February thanks to the introduction of dynamic pricing, which has reduced weekday fares.

Siwage Dharma Negara, a senior fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said reaching 2 million passengers is “certainly an encouraging number. … If this number can be sustained or even increased, there is a hope that the high-speed train will break even sooner than initially predicted, which is 40 years.”

The railway is expected to benefit local economies.

“In the long term, more destinations will have the potential to develop with commercial properties, such as shopping centers, alfresco dining, retail and hospitality, particularly near the stations,” Syarifah Syaukat, a senior research adviser at real estate consultancy Knight Frank, told Nikkei Asia.

“The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train is beneficial for Tegalluar,” which now has the opportunity to attract more visitors, said Chusna, a 50-year-old civil servant living in Tegalluar, a village near the city of Bandung. Tegalluar Station is northeast of the village. Chusna pointed out that popular destinations near the village, such as a football stadium and mosques, need to be promoted if those opportunities are to be realized.

“My concern,” he said, “is lack of promotion.”

With the arrival of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan late last month, which will last until mid-April, Whoosh demand is expected to grow. The last days of Ramadan and the feast of Idul Fitri make up the biggest holiday season of the year in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, and an exodus to hometowns usually marks the days.

Amid the increase in passenger numbers, the Indonesian government says it has agreed with China to conduct a feasibility study for extending the line to Surabaya, the nation’s second-largest city and the capital of East Java province, about 700 km from Jakarta.

“Whoosh is a potential project to be developed in the future,” Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said in a statement issued in January when he met his Chinese counterpart, Li Xiaopeng. Sumadi also said the countries are committed to increasing cooperation in developing national transportation infrastructure.

In November, Kartiko Wirjoatmodjo, the vice minister of state-owned enterprises, said a decision to extend the contract would take time. “We are conducting a joint study with China to see the feasibility and cost of the project.”

President-elect Prabowo, who takes over in October, went for a test ride in September. “[President Jokowi and I] discussed the infrastructure of this fast train,” he said at the time, “and we might extend the line to Surabaya.”

Observers point out that the extension project hinges on the next administration’s budget priorities. Prabowo’s centerpiece campaign pledge — free school lunches for children across the nation — promises to be costly. “As long as the project will not affect his priority programs,” the ISEAS’ Negara said, “I don’t see Prabowo rejecting such a proposal.”