This idea was only realized with the establishment of a railway company called the Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (NIS), registered as a legal entity on 27 August 1863. The stated purpose of railway construction in the Dutch East Indies was to facilitate the transportation of agricultural produce.
On 17 June 1864, a commemorative stone was laid in the village of Kemijen at the site of the future Semarang station (km 0) on the first section of the Semarang–Vorstenlanden (Yogyakarta) railway line. The ceremony was presided over by the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, Baron Sloet van de Beele. On 10 August 1867, construction of the first (plains) section to Tanggung station, 25 km in length, was completed. Thus, the Dutch East Indies became the second country in Asia to have railways, after India.
Station Semarang, the first railway station in Indonesia, 1880. (Source: digitalcollections.universiteitleiden.nl)
Work then proceeded on the remaining sections of this railway line, namely Tanggung–Gundih–Solo (Surakarta)–Yogya, as well as the Kedungjati–Willem I branch. The Semarang–Vorstenlanden line, with a gauge of 1,435 mm and crossing Java from north to south, was officially opened in full on 10 June 1872, while the Kedungjati–Willem I branch, the most labor-intensive section, was not completed until 21 May 1873. Today, a railway museum is open at Ambarawa station, formerly named after King Willem I.
Meanwhile, as early as 27 March 1864, a concession had been granted for the construction of a railway between the capital, Batavia (Jakarta), and Buitenzorg (Bogor), the summer residence of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Construction of the line, however, only began in 1869 — five years after the concession was granted. The reason was a dispute between the Dutch colonial administration and NIS. The latter intended to monopolize agricultural freight and wished eventually to merge the new line with the Semarang–Vorstenlanden line to create a standard-gauge network, while the administration insisted on a gauge of 1,067 mm. The officials prevailed, and the line that opened on 31 January 1873 was built to the narrow gauge.
The liberal Dutch government of the era was reluctant to build railways from the treasury, preferring to leave matters entirely to private enterprise. But private railways failed to deliver the expected return on investment (even NIS required some financial assistance from the government), and the Netherlands Ministry of Colonies eventually approved the state railway network, Staatsspoorwegen (SS), with a gauge of 1,067 mm, running along a main line from Buitenzorg in western Java to Surabaya in the east of the island. Construction began from both ends; the first section from Surabaya was opened on 16 May 1878, and the two cities were connected by 1894.
Locomotive of Sharp, Stewart & Co. (Manchester, United Kingdom), Class C10, bearing the logo of the Staatsspoorwegen. Indonesia, 1880-1888. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Railway development on the island of Sumatra had its own distinct character. Unlike Java, only the central part of Sumatra had been brought under full Dutch colonial control by the early 1860s. For this reason, the first railway line — connecting the city of Banda Aceh with the port of Ulee Lheue in 1876 — served a military purpose and for a long time remained under the jurisdiction of the War Ministry. This initially short (5 km) narrow-gauge line, known as the "Atjeh Tram," was built to a gauge of 1,067 mm, but in 1884 was regauged to 750 mm and progressively extended to the southeast. By 1917, the total length of this line (with branches) had reached 511 km. Only on 1 January 1916 was it transferred to civilian authority, becoming part of the SS network under the name Atjeh Staats Spoorwegen (ASS).
In 1883, N.V. Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij (DSM) was founded — a private railway company operating on the eastern coast of Sumatra in the vicinity of the city of Deli (now Medan). Initially DSM carried primarily tobacco, and later expanded its freight range to include tea, rubber, and timber. The company used a gauge of 1,067 mm.
Kuta Raja (city of Banda Aceh) — central station of the Atjeh Staats Spoorwegen Railway, 25 April 1925. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Finally, between 1891 and 1894, the West Sumatra State Railway Westkust (SSS) was built, also to a gauge of 1,067 mm, located in the Minangkabau region and designed to carry coal from mines in the interior of the island to the port of Padang. All of Sumatra's railways were (and remain) isolated from one another.
A small 1,067 mm gauge branch line was also built on the island of Kalimantan around 1908. It connected an oil refinery with the seaport at Balikpapan, but was bombed by American aircraft during World War II and permanently closed in 1950.
Meanwhile, on the island of Java, NIS continued construction of 1,435 mm gauge railway lines. Around 1915, the company's workshops were relocated from Semarang to Yogyakarta (where they remain to this day). By 1917, a total of 206 km of standard-gauge lines had been laid. By the end of the following year, NIS had 57 locomotives, 35 passenger, 136 baggage, and 1,393 freight cars, and had carried nearly 4 million passengers.
The Java network of the state company SS was also expanding. Before 1890, in addition to the Trans-Java main line, the sections Sidoarjo–Bangil–Pasuruan and Bangil–Malang had been built, and in the early 20th century the Pasuruan–Banyuwangi section and others. By 1920, these were joined by the Batavia–Karawang, Jombang–Babat, and Batavia–Buitenzorg sections, acquired from private companies, including NIS.
Survey team and builders of the Garahan tunnel (the Surabaya–Banyuwangiline). (Source: Wikimedia Commons. From the photograph collection of the Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam.)
On 6 April 1925, electric train service was ceremonially inaugurated in Batavia on the Meester Cornelis (Jatinegara)–Tanjung Priok section (1.5 kV DC). By 1 May 1927, the entire capital's railway network had been electrified for suburban services, with both electric multiple units and locomotive-hauled trains used to carry passengers.
In the southern part of the island of Sulawesi, a 47 km railway line from Makassar to Takalar, gauge 1,067 mm, was built and operated from 1 July 1922 to 1 August 1930. An extension to North Sulawesi was planned. The Dutch mid-1920s plans also envisaged railway construction on Kalimantan, interconnection of Sumatra's separate railway systems, and electrification of all main lines on Java. The Great Depression, which began in 1929, put an end to these ambitious plans. The last major project completed was the electrification of the Batavia–Buitenzorgline, completed in 1930.
Electric locomotive manufactured by the Dutch company Werkspoor, No. 3203 (1928), which operated in the Batavia railway hub. (Source: Wikimedia Commons. From the photograph collection of the Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam.)
During the heyday of railway transport in Indonesia, records show that as of 31 December 1928, the total length of public railways in the Dutch East Indies (Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi) was 7,293 km. The greater part of the network — 5,473 km (including Batavia's urban tramway system, gauge 1,188 mm) — was located on the island of Java and the adjacent island of Madura, broken down as follows: 1,435 mm gauge — 205 km; 1,067 mm gauge conventional railways — 2,802 km; 1,067 mm gauge light railways ("tramway type") — 2,258 km; 600 mm gauge — 120 km.
At the same time, the Forestry and Plantations Service had built approximately 7,000 km of narrow-gauge industrial freight railways, of which 6,500 km belonged to the sugar industry. Unfortunately, this overall mileage would steadily diminish as lines were closed during the Great Depression and the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies.
1,435 mm gauge NIS railway line (Java, 1900–1940). (Source: Wikimedia Commons. From the photograph collection of the Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam.)
During the Japanese occupation of 1942–1945, all railway lines on Java were placed under military administration and operated as a single entity by the 陸輸総局 ("General Bureau of Land Transport"). The Sumatra systems, under the jurisdiction of a different Japanese military command, remained separate.
The occupiers also regauged all 1,435 mm gauge lines on Java to 1,067 mm, thereby resolving the gauge unification problem (though in practice this was no longer a pressing issue, as freight interchange between the two systems had been minimal, and by 1940 much of the standard-gauge system had already been equipped with a third rail). Japan viewed Indonesia's railways primarily as a resource to be exploited, and many locomotives were transferred to Malaya, Burma, and other occupied countries. As a result of materials being diverted to railway construction in Burma, the country's network shrank from 6,811 km in 1939 to 5,910 km in 1950.
After the end of World War II and the expulsion of the Japanese, the War of Independence of 1945–1949 began, pitting Indonesia against the Netherlands and its ally Great Britain. As early as 28 September 1945, freedom fighters established the direct predecessor of today's PT Kereta Api — the Djawatan Kereta Api Repoeblik Indonesia ("Railway Bureau of the Republic of Indonesia"). This date, rather than 10 August 1867, is for political reasons considered the founding date of Indonesian railways and is celebrated annually as Railway Day.
In 1950, to replenish the locomotive fleet — which had been severely depleted during the war — an order was placed for 100 main-line steam locomotives from the West German company Krupp, which arrived in the country over the following two years. In 1953, the first 27 diesel locomotives were delivered to the Indonesian railway network from the United States. Steam traction, however, remained dominant in Indonesia until the 1980s, with the last purchases of steam locomotives (17 units) made in 1964–1967 from Maschinenfabrik Esslingen (West Germany) and Nippon Sharyo (Japan).
GE-ALCO UM 106T — one of the first diesel locomotives in Indonesia — on display at the museum in Ambarawa, 14 August 2022. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
Significant changes also took place in the management of the country's railways. With Indonesia's attainment of full independence in 1949, all separate railway systems (with the exception of DSM on Sumatra) were subordinated to Djawatan Kereta Api. Non-state railways on Java formally continued to exist until 1958, when all railway lines in Indonesia were nationalized — including DSM — resulting in the creation in 1963 of Perusahaan Negara Kereta Api (PNKA) — the "State Railway Corporation." On 15 September 1971, the name was changed to Perusahaan Jawatan Kereta Api (PJKA) — "Indonesian Railway Systems."
During the 1970s, the railway network grew by 240 km, reaching 6,877 km in 1980. The most significant event of that decade, however, was the revival of electric traction. The Jakarta tram had been closed in 1960, and in 1965 all electric locomotives and multiple units — by then 35–40 years old — were retired and replaced by diesel and steam traction. In 1972, however, PJKA ordered from Japan the first batch of new 4-car electric multiple units, which arrived in Indonesia in 1976. At the same time, the phased restoration of electrification on the Jakarta–Bogorline began, a process completed in 1980.
Suburban electric multiple unit of the Rheostatik type, of Japanese manufacture (1976–1987), in Jakarta, 24 May 2012. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
In the final quarter of the 20th century and the early 21st century, Indonesia's railways — having overcome the industry's crisis — actively undertook the reconstruction of track infrastructure and signaling, centralization, and interlocking systems, built additional main tracks, and procured new rolling stock. In 1997, a branch was opened from Citayam to Nambo, which in the future is intended to form part of a planned railway bypass of Jakarta. This period was also characterized by repeated institutional reorganizations. On 2 January 1991, PJKA was transformed into Perusahaan Umum Kereta Api ("Public Company of Indonesian Railways"), and on 1 June 1999 this company became PT Kereta Api (Persero) (PT KA). In May 2010, the name was changed to PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Persero) (PT KAI) — "Indonesian Railway Company."
Construction of new railways intensified in the 21st century. On 4 September 2013, the Medan–Kualanamu Airport branch was opened; on 26 December 2017, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, serving the Jakarta metropolitan area, gained rail access. On 21 May 2018, the Padang–MinangkabauAirport branch opened; on 29 December 2019, the SoloBalapan (Surakarta)–Adisoemarmo Airport branch; and in September 2021, the branch connecting the city of Yogyakarta to its airport. In 2022, the total length of operational railway lines in the country reached 7,032 km, not including the 16 km of the Jakarta Metro, launched on 24 March 2019 (gauge 1,067 mm, 1.5 kV DC).
A landmark event for all of Indonesia was the return of railways to the island of Sulawesi. In March 2023, the first phase of construction of the southern section of the Trans-Sulawesi main line was completed, between Maros and Garongkong stations (80 km). The full southern section Makassar–Parepare, 142 km in length, is scheduled for commissioning in 2026.
Trial run of the first train in South Sulawesi, 29 October 2022. (Source: jakartaglobe.id. Photo: BTV Photo / Ifan Ahmad)
Looking ahead, the total length of the Trans-Sulawesi main line from Makassar to Manado will be approximately 2,000 km. A key feature of this line is its use of 1,435 mm gauge — thus, after eight decades, standard gauge has returned to Indonesia.
Railway construction on the islands of Kalimantan, Bali, and western New Guinea is also on the agenda. The most diverse range of projects concerns Kalimantan, though all share an orientation toward 1,435 mm gauge. Currently under active consideration are projects to provide railway access to prospective coal deposits (one of which was proposed to the Indonesian side by Russian Railways in 2011). In 2024, it was announced that a feasibility study is being developed for a new high-speed railway approximately 1,200 km in length along the northern coast of Kalimantan, which would connect three countries — Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.
The most significant recent event on Indonesia's railways was the opening, in the presence of President Joko Widodo, of the first HSR section, 142 km in length, between Jakarta and Bandung.
High-speed train at Halim Station in Jakarta, 2 October 2023. Source: zdmira.com. Photo: CCTV.
This HSR — the first not only in Indonesia but in all of Southeast Asia — was named Whoosh, an acronym of the Indonesian phrase Waktu hemat, operasi optimal, sistem handal ("Time-saving, optimal operations, reliable system"). The HSR has a gauge of 1,435 mm, is electrified using AC (25 kV, 50 Hz), is built to Chinese standards, and is designed for operating speeds of 350 km/h; the journey time between the country's capital and the administrative center of West Java Province is 40 minutes. CRRC Qingdao Sifang supplied 11 eight-car trainsets of the CR400AF series from the Fuxing family. Notably, for the first two weeks following the ceremonial opening on 2 October 2023, travel was free of charge for passengers. It is planned that in the future the HSR will cross Java from west to east, reaching Surabaya — Indonesia's second-largest city.
All of this suggests that Indonesia's railways are currently experiencing a renaissance comparable to the railway boom of a century ago. In this light, the Indonesian government's plans to increase the total length of the network to 10,524 km by 2030 appear entirely realistic.
A joint project of 1520International and the Institute for Economics and Transport Development (IETD)
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