History Of Train In Indonesia
History
of Train in Indonesia
The first railway lines in Indonesia were constructed during the Dutch colonial rule. After independence in
1949, many lines were abandoned. The current national rail operator, PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero), was
founded on 28 September 1945.
Pre-independence era
First railway line
The platform of the
first station of Nederlands-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (Dutch-Indies
Railway Company) in Semarang.
Indonesia (Dutch East
Indies) is the second country in Asia to establish a rail transport,
after India; China and Japan were next to follow. On 7 June 1864, Governor
General Baron Sloet van den Beele
initiated the first railway line in Indonesia on Kemijen village, Semarang,
Central Java. It began operations on 10 August 1867 in Central Java and
connected the first built Semarang station to Tanggung for 25 kilometers. By 21
May 1873, the line had connected to Solo,
both in Central Java and was later extended to Yogyakarta. This line was operated by a private
company, Nederlands-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (NIS: Netherlands
East Indies Railway Company) and used the 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
standard
gauge gauge. Later construction by both private and state railway
companies used the 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
gauge.
The liberal Dutch
government of the era was then reluctant to build its own railway, preferring
to give a free rein to private enterprises. However, private railways
could not provide the expected return of investment (even NIS required some
financial assistance from the government), and the Dutch Ministry of Colonies
finally approved a state railway system, the Staatsspoorwegen (State
Railway), extending from Buitenzorg (now Bogor) in the west, to Surabaya
in the east. Construction began from both ends, the first line (from Surabaya)
being opened on 16 May 1878, and both cities were connected by 1894.
Locomotive and train of
the Dutch Indies Railway Company (Nederlands-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij),
Java.
By the 1920s, the
system in Java had reached its greatest extent, with most towns and cities
connected by rail, with branches and tramways connecting sugar plantations to
factories.
The Great
Depression of the 1930s put paid to plans of constructing railway
lines in Borneo,
Celebes,
connecting the lines in Sumatra and electrification of the lines in Java.
After the Dutch state
started railway construction, private enterprises did not completely get out of
the picture, and at least 15 light railway companies operated in Java. These
companies operated as "steam tram companies", but despite the name,
were better described as regional secondary lines.
Java
B 2502 at the Ambarawa Railway Museum
As befits a colonial
enterprise, most railway lines in Indonesia had a dual purpose: economic and
strategic. In fact, a condition for the financial assistance for the NIS was
that the company build a railway line to Ambarawa,
which had an important fort named Willem I for the Dutch king. The first
state railway line was built through the mountains on the southern part of
Java, instead of the flat regions on the north, for a similar strategic reason.
The state railway in Java connected Anyer on the western coast
of the island, to Banyuwangi on the eastern coast.
Sumatra
Rail yard in Medan, June 1950
In Sumatra,
railways were first used for military purposes, with a railway line connecting Banda Aceh
and its port of Uleelhee in 1876. This railway, the Atjeh Staats Spoorwegen
(ASS), first built to a 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge which
was later regauged to 750
mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) and extended south. This line was only transferred to the Ministry of Colonies from the Ministry of War on 1 January 1916, following the relative pacification of Aceh.
mm (2 ft 5 1⁄2 in) and extended south. This line was only transferred to the Ministry of Colonies from the Ministry of War on 1 January 1916, following the relative pacification of Aceh.
The Western Sumatra's
state railway in the Minangkabau area, the Staatsspoorwegen ter Sumatra's
Westkust (SSS) transported coal from inland mines to the port at Padang and
was built between 1891 and 1894
The Southern Sumatra's
state railway, the Staatsspoorwegen op Zuid-Sumatra (ZSS), was completed
in the 1930s. It served a fertile plantation area and an important coal mine.
Another important
private railway line was the Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij (Deli
Railway Company). This line served regions producing rubber and tobacco in
Deli.
Sulawesi
Between July 1922 and
1930, a 47 kilometres (29 mi)-long railway line operated in South Sulawesi.
This line was to be extended to North Sulawesi, as part of a massive project of
railway construction in Borneo and Sulawesi, connection of separate railway systems in
Sumatra and electrification of the main lines in Java.
The Great Depression of 1929 put paid to these
plans.
Japanese occupation
During the Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1945,
the different railway lines in Java were managed as one entity. The Sumatra
systems, being under the administration of a different branch of the Japanese armed forces,
remained separate.
The occupiers also
converted the (1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
standard
gauge lines in Java into 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in),
thereby resolving the dual gauge issue. This was not an actual
"problem" as there was not much transfer of materials between the
systems, and much of the 1,435 mm system had been fitted with a third rail
by 1940, creating a mixed-gauge railway. Many locomotives were seized and
transported to Malaya, Burma and elsewhere.
Independence era
During the war for
independence between 1945 and 1949, freedom
fighters took over the railways, creating the first direct
predecessor to today's PT Kereta Api, the Djawatan Kereta Api Repoeblik
Indonesia (Railway Bureau of the Republic of Indonesia), on 28 September 1945.
This date, not the 1867 one, is regarded as the birth date of Indonesian
railways and commemorated as Railway Day every year, due to political ground.
In Sumatra, the
separate systems were similarly taken over, named Kereta Api Soematera
Oetara Negara Repoeblik Indonesia in North Sumatra and Kereta Api Negara
Repoeblik Indonesia in South and West Sumatra.
On the other hand, the
Dutch created its own combined railway system to manage the lines located on
its occupied territory, the Verenigd
Spoorwegbedrijf (Combined Railways). By the time of Dutch recognition of
Indonesian independence, the VS had most railway lines under its management,
though not all were in operation.
With Indonesia's full
independence in 1949, the separate systems (except the Deli Railway) were
combined into the Djawatan Kereta Api. Non-state railway systems in Java
retained their paper existence until 1958, when all railway lines in Indonesia
were nationalized, including the Deli Railway,
thereby creating the Perusahaan Negara Kereta Api (PNKA: State Railway
Corporation).
On 15 September 1971,
PNKA was reorganized into Perusahaan Jawatan Kereta Api (Railway Bureau
Corporation), in turn reorganized into Perumka (Perusahaan Umum Kereta
Api: Public Railway Corporation) on 2 January 1991. Perumka was transformed
into PT Kereta Api (Persero) on 1 June 1999. Since 2010 the name of PT
Kereta Api was transformed into PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) till
now
The headquarters of the
state railway system, since Dutch colonial days, had been located in Bandung,
West Java. Private railway companies were headquartered elsewhere, in Semarang,
Tegal, Surabaya
and Medan.
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