History of rail transport in Indonesia
The current national rail operator, PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero), was founded on 28 September 1945.
Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) was the second country in Asia to establish a rail transport, after India; China and Japan were next to follow.
[1] On 7 June 1864, Governor General Baron Sloet van den Beele initiated the first railway line in Indonesia on Kemijen village, Semarang, Central Java.
[1] It began operations on 10 August 1867 in Central Java and connected the first built Semarang station to Tanggung for 25 kilometers.
The liberal Dutch government of the era was then reluctant to build its own railway, preferring to give a free rein to private enterprise.
But 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 (SS), extending from Buitenzorg (now Bogor) in the west, to Surabaya in the east.
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 connected to the one of an important military base named Fort 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.
[3] 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.
With Indonesia's full independence in 1949, the separate systems (except the Deli Railway) were combined into the Djawatan Kereta Api.
[4] On 15 September 1971 the name of PNKA was changed to Perusahaan Jawatan Kereta Api (PJKA, the Indonesian Railway Systems).
[8] The headquarters of the state railway system, since Dutch colonial days, had been located in Bandung, West Java.
[16] The Trans-Sulawesi Railway are built with 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge which is wider than the 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) cape gauge used in Java and Sumatra to accommodate more weight and speed,[17][18] the first phase includes 146 kilometers route from Makassar to Parepare, which was completed in November 2022 and has been operating ever since,[19] the total plan for the railway would be around 2,000 kilometres spanning from Makassar to Manado,[20] most of other sections are still under construction.
In Greater Jakarta, KRL Commuterline and Jabodebek LRT is operational urban rail network, serving commuter routes which comprises cities of DKI Jakarta, Depok, Bogor, Bekasi, Tangerang, and South Tangerang as well as regencies of Bogor, Bekasi, and Lebak.
The beginning of the construction of the railway was in 1876, in the form of the first network in the Dutch East Indies, between Tanggung and Gudang in Semarang in 1876, along 26 km.
In 1880, the Batavia (Jakarta) – Buitenzorg (Bogor) line was built along 59 km, then continued to Cicalengka via Cicurug – Sukabumi – Cibeber – Cianjur – Bandung.
In this era, PJKA continues to experience decline due to the increasing number of private car users, public transportation and the emergence of Ojek.
The Bintaro Tragedy on 19 October 1987 was a tragic event that worsened the bad image of PJKA as the only railway operator in Indonesia.
The Perumka era is often called the "red and blue era" because all the paint on commercially operated locomotives was changed to red and blue with a white Perumka logo on the front and back, and under the driver's cabin glass right above the license plate.
All of the latest Argo executive trains were painted white-gray with dark blue stripes with the PT KAI logo on the left and the Ministry of Transportation on the right.
Meanwhile, there were changes to the entire series of passenger trains ranging from executive, business, and economy, to what can be seen today.
During this period, PT KA introduced the PSO (public service obligation) system, especially for economy trains.
In addition, in 2006 to 2011, a locomotive was made based on the CC203 design by adding a BrightStar Sirius computer at PT Inka so that the CC204 batch II was created.
Even more amazingly, a boarding pass system has emerged that requires passengers to bring proof of identity.
Locomotive digitalization in Indonesia has continued to advance since CC205 and CC206 were imported to strengthen PT KAI's current fleet and also the development of the CC300 locomotive as part of this transformation and digitalization In commemorating its 75th anniversary on 28 September 2020, PT KAI inaugurated a new logo in the form of three letters "K", "A", and "I" made in italics (depicting the company's progressive, open, and trusted character).
[28] As one of the mass transportation models used by millions of people, the development of railways in Indonesia is inseparable from the spotlight and weaknesses.
[31] This means that 40% of crossings escape the supervision of PT KAI which is fully responsible for ensuring traffic safety and security as stated in Law Number 23 of 2007, articles 31, 32, 33, 34 and 124 which have been ratified by the legislature.
The tabulation of railroad lines is based on their crossing numbers in the Buku Jarak untuk Angkutan Barang Jawa dan Madura (Distance Book for Goods Transportation in Java and Madura) published by PJKA in 1982, unless otherwise stated.
[39] There are railroad lines that were successfully reactivated by Djawatan Kereta Api Republik Indonesia (DKARI) in the early days of independence.
