Streetcars: Riding the rails in Batavia

Streetcars: Riding the rails in Batavia

By Ida Indawati Khouw

Young Jakartans might be surprised to know that the capital
city once boasted a streetcar service, but it will do you no good
now trying to find the tracks. The 83rd article in our Batavia
series tries to uncover the history of Jakarta's streetcars.

JAKARTA (JP): Traffic jams have become synonymous with the
country's capital as the city administration seems to be
incapable of getting beyond the discussion stage for a mass rapid
transportation system for Jakarta's 10 million inhabitants.

By contrast, in the past Jakartans were lucky enough to be
able to enjoy comfortable transportation by streetcar.

Senior residents still remember the good old days when they
traveled around Batavia (as Jakarta was known in the Dutch days)
on the streetcars.

"I never missed the chance to travel around Batavia when I had
a dagkart (one-day ticket), which was usually given to me by
visiting relatives. I usually took a tram and just rode along
until it reached the terminus," said Louis Hilman, a 74-year-old
native of Meester-Cornelis (now the Jatinegara area in East
Jakarta).

"The streetcars were an environmentally friendly means of
transportation. It's a pity that the city administration couldn't
manage the system well so that it was forced to close down," said
Firman Lubis, 58, a lecturer at the University of Indonesia who
loves to collect data on Batavia.

Only those who were alive before the 1960s had the privilege
of riding on Jakarta's streetcars as the service closed down in
1962.

First streetcar

Streetcars were first introduced to Batavia in 1869. The
original streetcars were horse-drawn and served the downtown Kota
area and Weltevreden (Gambir) link to Amsterdamsche Poort (then
located on Jl. Tongkol in downtown Kota but now demolished),
Molenvliet (Jl. Gajah Mada and Jl. Hayam Wuruk) and Harmonie,
according to the book Trams en Tramlijnen, de Elektrische
Stadstrams op Java (Streetcars and Streetcar Lines, the Electric
Streetcars of Java) by H.J.A. Duparc.

"In the tropical land, though, the use of horses to pull trams
is far from suitable .... In the course of one particular year 54
horses died and the company began to look for a more reliable
form of energy. In those days, steam was the only answer," Duparc
said.

Thus, starting in 1881 the horse-drawn streetcars were phased
out and steam-driven ones were introduced.

An interesting type of wagon was the so-called pikolan wagon.
These simple floors-on-wheels were used for the transportation of
freight and livestock -- such as fish and goats -- and the
traders who owned them.

The pikolan wagon was so much in demand that the number of
these special wagons soon had to be increased.

"Another local aspect of the streetcars was the use of peanut
oil as a lubricant," wrote Duparc.

One who once experienced riding on a steam-powered streetcar
was John Schlechter, a Dutchman who once lived on Kerkstraat (Jl.
Jatinegara Timur, East Jakarta).

"The steam locomotive with the pikolan wagon and passenger
cars passed our house every 15 minutes, coming from Pasar Ikan
(in Kota), and passing through Molenvliet, Harmonie, Rijswijk
(Jl. Veteran), Waterlooplein (the Lapangan Banteng area), Senen,
Kramat and Matraman," said the 78-year-old who now resides in the
East Java town of Prigen.

According to Sclechter, the lengthy trip could be covered in
less than an hour if nothing untoward happened to the locomotive,
while the ticket price was seven cents.

The disadvantages of steam power are also highlighted by
Duparc, such as when the steam pressure fell too much or the tram
stalled somewhere in the middle of the line due to a sudden
downpour. The disgruntled passengers would have to remain in the
car while waiting for assistance.

Duparc noted that once, on March 6, 1906, though, the opposite
happened and an oversupply of steam pumped at the Kramat workshop
(in Central Jakarta) caused the engine to explode.

The new electric-streetcar service was introduced on Apr. 10,
1899, and the city of Batavia could feel proud as it was hot on
the heels of the motherland, Holland. There, the first electric
streetcar line began operating on the Harlem-Zandvoort line only
in July 1899.

Following the switch to electric power, the streetcar network
began to be further developed. The layout of the main line,
however, continued to resemble an inverted question mark.

A 1941's map of the city's streetcar network showed that it
was made up of five lines with the longest one being Line 1
serving the Pasar Ikan to Kampung Melayu route. Meanwhile, Line 2
served the Harmonie to Menteng route, Line 3 the Jembatan Lima to
Kramat route, Line 4 the Pasar Ikan to Tanah Abang route, and
Line 5 the Tanah Abang to Jembatan Merah route.

A complete journey from terminus to terminus would take almost
an hour, and on the 13 sets of streetcar services, the streetcars
operated at 10-minute intervals, Duparc said.

Louis said that before the Japanese era, most passengers were
well-disciplined and that the streetcars were properly
maintained. "It was fine for even middle- and higher-class people
to ride the streetcars. Indeed, such people would take the first
class car."

Three classes

At that time the streetcars had three classes. Those who
purchased a 10-cent ticket could go first class (mostly
Europeans), while second class cost about seven cents. Those in
third class only had to pay four cents.

"But actually, there was no major distinction between the
three classes, only that the higher classes had more seats and
were equipped with ceiling fans (for first and second classes),"
Louis said.

Regarding the streetcar classes, senior journalist Mochtar
Lubis, 79, described how racism was experienced by indigenous
Indonesians.

"I really loved traveling by streetcar as besides being cheap
it was also practical ... I often took the first class car, just
to make the Dutch around me uneasy. They would stare at me and I
would stare back at them. They couldn't do anything because I'd
paid for a first class ticket," he said in the introduction to
his book Hikayat Jakarta (Tale of Jakarta).

Actually, the "racial" policy dated back to 1887 when the
Dutch introduced special carriages called "second class inlanders
(natives)".

Louis said the streetcars were slow, especially those that
stopped at every streetcar halt. "I think there were tram stops
every 300 meters to 400 meters along Kramat, Salemba, Matraman
and Meester Cornelis. That's why it took about half an hour from
my house to Senen."

While the arrival of a streetcar was signaled by the sounding
of a bell, "the unique aspect was that the streetcar drivers were
forbidden from sounding the bell when passing residential areas
during the siesta hours between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.," Louis
recalled.

Another anecdote concerning the streetcars was shared by
Schlecter, "There was a toekang sodok, a man who walked the rails
poking with a stick for stones or other things that could
endangered the streetcars.

"My (late) father used to say 'if you grow lazy, you'll become
a toekang sodok', which was a low paying job," he said.

Nevertheless, the streetcars were loved by the public. During
the annual Pasar Gambir festival at Koningsplein (Monas square),
special services were added and the frequency was also increased.

But cases of fare-dodging were common. Louis remembered that a
gang of his school friends sometimes cheated the streetcar
conductors.

"Anytime a conductor approached, my friends would get off at
the next stop and continue their journey on another streetcar,"
he said.

To solve the problem of fare evaders, the streetcar company
then built wooden ticket kiosks at some busy stops.

During the Japanese occupation (1942-1945), the streetcar
system was reduced to a ruinous condition. Schlechter, who came
back from the Netherlands in 1951, witnessed that there were too
many people on the wagons and hanging onto the stars, while
pickpockets were everywhere.

The service deteriorated even further because sometimes
sidewalk vendors, for instance in the Senen market area, sold
their wares close to the rails, said Firman Lubis.

"Jakarta's streets were also crowded with pedicabs, oplet
(small buses) and other small transportation vehicles," said
Lubis, who at that time resided in the Guntur area of Central
Jakarta.

In mid-1951, the mayor of Jakarta, Sjamsuridjal, made it known
that the time had come for the streetcars to be replaced by
buses.

"After 91 years of service, the streetcars had to make way for
buses. By 1960, only one streetcar line remained connecting
Kramat and Djatinegara. The service lasted until 1962, when
Salemba and Matraman were enlarged for the 1962 Asian Games,
marking the death knell for the last streetcar service in the
city," Duparc noted.