RAILWAYS of INDONESIA

Recently, the daily newspaper "The Jakarta Post" published an article "Lawang Sewu, a haunted, sad place." Now, after years of neglect and uncertainty, the former Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (Netherlands Indies Railway Company, or NIS) head office is being restored by the I ndonesian Railway Company (PTKA) Regional Office in Semarang. When this building was completed in 1907 it was a very modern building. The architects, J.F. Klinkhamer and B.J. Ouëndag, made a careful study of Semarang’s climatic condition. As a result, they came up with a design which is dominated by galleries (inspired by the front and rear galleries [ voor- en achter galerijen ] of Indies style houses) and louvered doors (in fact, many of them). This is why the people of Semarang affectionately gave the building the nickname “Lawang Sewu” (“The Thousand Doors” in Javanese). Recently, however, the building is more known as a haunted place. This, no doubt, recalls the time when i...

There is no dispute that the first railway line in Indonesia was built between Semarang and Tanggung by the Nederlandsch_Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (NIS). However, the exact location of Semarang’s first station is still subject to controversy. The official view of PTKA (Indonesian Railway Company) is that the first station was located in Kemi(d)jen, and was even called Kemidjen Station. Kemidjen Station in the railway company’s official history book. Other sources, such as Rietsma (1925), Liem (1933), Oegema (1982), van Ballegooien de Jong , (1993) de Bruin (2003), however, make no references of Kemi(d)jen. They all say that the first railway line was between Semarang (Samarang) and Tanggung (Tangoeng). Liem adds that the first NIS station was located near the port, in an area called Tambaksari. The use of the spelling Samarang was common till the 1880s. Thus, it is very likely that the first station in Semarang would also be called Samarang Station. The 1866 map of Semarang s...