JP/1/RAILWAY.@05

JP/1/RAILWAY.@05

The state-owned Perumka railway company celebrates its
anniversary on Sept. 28. On that fateful day in 1945, control of
the service was wrested from the Japanese run Tedsudo Kyoku by
the company's young Indonesian employees.

The action was precipitated by Indonesia's declaration of
independence, which inspired the youths who worked for the
company to stage a coordinated action all over the country to
seize the reins of the company.

In conjunction with the company's 49th anniversary of the
takeover, Jakarta Post reporters, Rita A. Widiadana, Petty
Prihartini and photographer Rully Kesuma prepared four stories on
the railway company, including its history and current situation.
They also interviewed Perumka's president to look at the
company's achievements and their designs to face the challenges
of the future. The following story by Rita A. Widiadana takes us
back to the old times. The other three stories appear on Page 2.

JAKARTA (JP): Slow but never sure. This was the reality of
Indonesia's railway in the old days.

"If we took the train, we were never certain when we would
arrive at any destination," Mrs. Sujatin Soepeno, an 82-year old
grandmother, recollected about the state of the railway 45 years
ago.

It took two weeks to travel from Bandung, West Java, to
Yogyakarta, compared to the present executive train which takes
eight hours to cover the same route. The train was called the
Kereta Api Express, but it was popularly known as the sepur balap
or racing train. The word sepur originates from the Dutch word
spoorweg, or railway, while balap is derived from Javanese and
means sprint or race.

"The Kereta Api Express was not a fast train, though. The
train moved as slow as a buffalo walking along the rice field's
paths. That's why we called the train sepur balap, because it had
to race against the buffalo," the grandmother laughed.

That was in l947 when the national railway company, Djawatan
Kereta Api (DKARI), had just taken over the rails from Japan.
Indonesia was still going through its period of transition.

Margono, 70, a retired employee of the railway company,
recalled that, "Taking the train was a risky business. At any
time passengers could be attacked by Dutch troops. When that
happened, the train had to stop or return to its point of
departure."

The 73 year-old Nyoman Widiada, a cattle and farm equipment
exporter in Bali, shared his experience of traveling by train in
the l950s. It was a painful undertaking just to ship the
livestock abroad, he recalled.

"I had to share my seat with the cattle during our journey
from Banyuwangi to Tanjung Perak Harbor in Surabaya, East Java.
You can imagine the smell in that dark cattle car," he smiled.

During that period, DKARI had old-fashioned steam engines,
like the IB locomotive produced by the British firm Fox Walker &
Co, and the ID + DD52 locomotive. Both engines could travel
between 40 km and 60 km per hour, but could only pull two or
three coaches at a time.

"Never wear white clothes when traveling by train, they will
turn gray from the smoke from the steam engine," was the advise
of a railway official to his customers.

Although railways were introduced in Indonesia in l868, it was
not until the early 1940s that Indonesian citizens had the
opportunity to travel by train. Previously, they only served the
Dutch colonial government and private Dutch and Chinese
plantation companies.

Besides the slow intercity trains, Jakarta also had its own
transportation system.

Jakarta's initial mass transportation system were its trams.
They first appeared in l925 and were operated by Bataviache
Verkeers Maatschppij. The trams were produced by Lin Kota and ran
between Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta and Jatinegara in East
Jakarta.

Alex, 60, reminisced about taking the city's first mode of
mass transportation. "It was really fun although the train took
two hours to reach Kota from Tanah Abang. Cars and buses were
very rare," he pointed out.

Jakarta was home to only 623,000 people in l945 compared to
today's overwhelming nine million.

Commuters, Alex said, came mostly from low-income groups such
as laborers and traders as well as students. Many of whom, like
today, refused to pay for their tickets. The train conductors,
however, would smile and let them continue their journey in the
crowded coaches.

"It was taboo for rich people to take the tram. It would hurt
their status in society," he added.

In l957 the city administration replaced the trams with buses
operated by the state transportation company PPD.