On my 2024 trip to Indonesia I had the distinction of riding the railways of Sumatra, Java, and Sulawesi. These are the only islands in Indonesia with passenger railways, so it was good to see how the railways compare between the islands.
This report is an overview of Indonesia’s railways as of 2024.
Sumatra
The Sumatra railway network is fragmented in small sections, and it is difficult to visit all of the railways in one trip. I was in North Sumatra in 2023 where I covered the railways operating out of Medan. For this trip in 2024 I went to Palembang to ride a section of the South Sumatra railway.
I was in Palembang in 2019 and I rode the train from Palembang to Bandar Lampung. I came back to ride the other major line from Palembang to Lubuk Linggau.
[Train to Lubuk Linggau at Kertapati in Palembang.]
Out of all of the train trips I had planned on this visit, this was the one I was least looking forward to. I was glad to be doing this first to get it out of the way. The train is still a superior experience to getting a bus in Sumatra, but it’s a slow train with uncomfortable seats.
The only seats available are bench seats that face other seats. The seats are close together, so tall people like myself are knocking knees with the person sitting opposite. The seats are padded, but being bolt upright is tiresome for such a long distance.
[Economy bench seats.]
Here is my review from a passengers perspective of the train from Palembang to Lubuk Linggau.
I’m going to hazard a guess and say that like me, most of my readers have never heard of Lubuk Linggau. If you were wondering why there is a train line to such a random destination, it’s because the train line serves the coal fields of South Sumatra.
The train passes through what looks like a scenic area of South Sumatra, but the Google satellite view shows the extent of the mining.
[Coal mines near Stasiun Merapi.]
The line to Lubuk Linggau is double-tracked, and on the inland journey we passed numerous trains laden with coal heading for the port in Palembang.
The trip from Palembang to Lubuk Linggau cost 32,000 IDR (about 2 USD) for the 7 h 15 m journey. This must rank as one of the cheapest rail journeys in the world. This railway is built for coal extraction, and passenger trains are run like a charity service.
I don’t mind that the passenger rail is only there because of the mining. At least there is a passenger service. On the trips I have taken on the South Sumatra railways, they have always been full.
What bothers me is that this service feels like an afterthought, and they haven’t tried to make a better passenger experience. It feels like the passenger train is added as a concession to justify the line for mining.
Long-distance trains in Java have carriages with different class options, so why not in Sumatra? There is a view in Indonesia that development is heavily skewed towards Java. The government is addressing the Java-centric problem by building transport projects across the archipelago. to make the passenger trains feel less Java-centric, there should be the same level of passengers services offered in Sumatra as there is in Java.
Another problem is that the trains in Sumatra are too slow. Indonesia is planning to build a Trans-Sumatra railway that could one day connect Bandar Lampung in the south to Aceh in the north. This is a massive undertaking that will never be built as a single project. The way to do it is to gradually build lines between major cities with the goal of forming a connected network.
[Future Trans-Sumatra line near Kertapati Station in Palembang.]
Unfortunately for Sumatra, the current lines used in North Sumatra and South Sumatra are useless for a trans-island railway that will be over 1600 km in length.
The average speed on the Lubuk Linggau line is just 42 km/h. If I round it up to 50 km/h, the trans-Sumatra journey of 1600 km would take 32 hours. That is about the same distance and speed of the current antiquated North-South railway in Vietnam, which they are planning to replace.
For a Trans-Sumatra railway to be viable, it will need to be a standard-gauge electric railway, and at least semi-high-speed (between 160–200 km/h).
Java
The purpose of this rail-themed trip across Indonesia was to ride the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway (known as Whoosh). I tried to plan my travels in 2023 to go to the inaugural service, but the opening was delayed (again) after I had planned my trip. If I have learned one thing about opening dates in Southeast Asia, it’s to never plan trips around proposed opening dates.
[Whoosh at Padalarang.]
I was looking forward to riding the fastest train in Southeast Asia (and one of the fastest trains in the world), but I had my concerns. My main concern was how to get to and from the stations. The stations are far outside the city centre, so I was surprised to see how well other rail transit systems have been integrated into connecting the railway.
The terminal station for Jakarta is at Halim (near Halim Airport), and a new light rail line (Bekasi Line on the Jabodebek LRT) was built to connect Central Jakarta to the high-speed rail station.
At the Bandung end, the main station for the high-speed railway is at Padalarang. The high-speed rail station is built next to the existing station at Padalarang, and there is a special shuttle train from Padalarang to Bandung.
The ideal scenario would have been for the high-speed railway to continue to Bandung Station, but it would have been prohibitively expensive and time consuming to procure the required land in such a built-up area.
The Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway is 142.80 km in length, though the section from Halim to Padalaranfg is 97.22 km. The last station is at Tegalluar, which also serves Bandung but it’s hard to get to.
I took the train to Tegalluar just to be able to say I rode the entire line. Most people got off at Padalaranfg, so I’m not sure what the purpose was of building Tegalluar. I got a shuttle bus from Tegalluar to Bandung with two other passengers. The bus took over an hour to get to Bandung, so no wonder no one goes to this station.
The section from Padalarang to Tegalluar is 45.58 km, which represents 312% of the railway length. Considering how expensive the project was even before the cost blow outs, they could have saved one third of the cost by not building this section.
On the positive side, the section from Padalarang to Tegalluar is now 45.58 km less that needs to be built for the proposed extension to Surabaya.
There has been a lot of debate about whether Indonesia should have built such an expensive railway.
One statistic that I like to continually remind people is that the island of Java is home to over 150 million people. The population base and size of Java is an ideal place to build a high-speed railway. A high-speed line from Jakarta to Surabaya should form the backbone of the Java rail network, and improved connecting railways from each major stop can then distribute passengers to other cities.
What should happen though is an inquiry into the blowout of the construction cost. Why did the $5.1 billion project end up costing costing $7.3 billion, and why was the cost significantly higher than the global average for building high-speed rail?
Here is my full review of the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway.
From Bandung I got the normal train to Yogyakarta. I have been on this route before, and I remembered it to be a scenic railway. I had forgotten how scenic it was, and I got me thinking about why this railway isn’t more famous. I came up with a proposal to develop a Java Rail Pass to promote tourism in Java.
One of the impressive features of the Java railway system is that they are making the most from what they have. Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Surabaya have commuter railways, which is just separate services that run on the national railway tracks.
These cities are able to offer commuter railways because the system is double-tracked. This would never work in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City because the main line to the city stations are on a single track. It would be too hard to run a regular commuter service in each direction, while allowing space for the national railway services as well.
In another instance of making-do with what they already have, an airport rail link was built to the new Yogyakarta International Airport by adding a spur line to the existing railway. The new airport is much further out than the old airport, but it doesn’t matter if it has an airport rail link.
One thing I disliked on this trip was the naming system used for the seating classes. The classes include:
– Bisnis (Business)
– Eksukutif (Executive)
– Premium
– Economy
The classes Bisnis and Eksukutif sound like similar offerings, and even after taking multiple rides I got mixed up. I booked a premium seat in advance and forgot about it until the day of travel. My ticket said Coach 3 so I went to that. I was quite happy with these premium-looking seats.
Eventually a ticket inspector came by and I was told that I was sitting in the Eksekutif section. I was sent back to the Premium section, where I found that the leg room made low-cost airlines seating look spacious.
This naming system reminds me of the nonsense that Starbucks use to size their cups (Tall, Grande, Venti). I much prefer the to-the-point naming that Thailand uses, such as 2nd Class Aircon and 3rd Class Hard Seat Fan. No mystery of what you are getting.
Bali
There is no railway on Bali, but there have been numerous plans for a railway over the years. I happened to be in Bali while the Department of Transport were planning to build a subway from the airport to Seminyak. My rail report is only covering long-distance railways, so I will do another report for urban railways.
I was invited to meet with the Department of Transport, and they laid out some of their future plans.
[Department of Transport in Bali.]
One of the plans that is still on the drawing board is for a railway that goes around the island. This puts it in the category of a regional railway, thus it qualifies to be mentioned in this report.
[Bali Railways Masterplan.]
Here is the archive of Bali railway plans, which dates back to 2011.
Sulawesi
Out of all of the railways on this trip, I was looking forward to the Sulawesi Railway as much as Whoosh. The Makassar-Parepare railway opened in 2023, making it the first railway on the island of Sulawesi.
There has been very little news about this railway, so I wanted to see it for myself. I have written a separate trip report for the Makassar – Parepare Railway from a travellers perspective. The following notes are extra observations from a development perspective.
I couldn’t find a website of the railway, so I didn’t know if there were trains running. The current main station for Makassar is near the airport but not near anything. I got a Grab taxi to the station, and I was relieved to see that there were people at the station.
It turns out I was too late for the morning train and too early for the afternoon train, so I had time to walk around.
The railway is not finished yet as they haven’t extended the line into Makassar city. I walked to the end of the line to see the future corridor.
[This line will be extended south to Makassar.]
I haven’t found a map yet that shows the location of the Makassar station, but according to the sign at Mandai it is 14 km away. That will be about 6 km from the city centre, so I will have to come back to see it when it’s operating.
I mentioned that I missed the inaugural run of Whoosh, and I missed the inauguration of the Makassar-Parepare railway as well. In hindsight it’s better from a reviewers perspective to ride the railway at least a few months after the opening. I was in Makassar over a year after it had opened, so plenty of time for the initial interest in the line to subside. Or so I thought. When I got to the ticket office I was told it was standing-room only in both directions.
I thought that my search skills were getting bad because I couldn’t find an official website for the railway. The station lists all of their social media accounts, but there was no website at the time of my visit. I have linked to the accounts in my Makassar – Parepare Railway guide.
I like that the logo of the railway looks like a proper railway logo.
The Makassar – Parepare Railway doesn’t go to Makassar or Parepare yet. Partially opening is still better than waiting for years for the entire line to be finished.
Once the train departed I discovered it really was standing-room only. Almost everyone on the train was on the train as a joy ride. Another fellow offered me his seat for the last 30 minutes of the return journey.
When the train got to the end station at Garongkong. everyone got off and waited at the station for the return trip.
[Passengers at Garongkong.]
The eventual plan is that the Makassar – Parepare Railway will form part of the Trans-Sulawesi Railway from Makassar to Manado. Like the Trans-Sumatra Railway, this will be about 1600 km in length. Also like the Trans-Sumatra Railway, the current railway is too slow for a long-distance intercity railway.
The service that is currently running is a commuter service that stops at all of the stations along the way. I was standing next to the display board so I was watching the speed as we went. The fastest I saw was about 85 km/h, so the average speed was about 50 km/h.
[85.3 km/h on the Makassar – Parepare Railway.]
My original plan was to get the train to the end of the line and stay there for the night. After doing some research on Google Maps I deduced that there was nothing to do in Garongkong, let alone anywhere to stay.
After riding the railway I am hopeful that the towns and villages with a station will set up some tourism infrastructure to encourage railway tourism. The railway passes through beautiful countryside, so it would be great if there were some places to stay here in the future.
[Scenery along the Makassar Parepere Railway.]
Future Lines
Indonesia already has a useful railway in Java, so I’m looking forward to seeing how other island networks develop. It seems that the Trans-Sumatra Railway has stagnated, and I haven’t seen any updates for Sulawesi.
The next big project is the proposed extension of the high-speed raiwlay from Bandung to Surabaya, and there is also talk of a regional railway to connect Balikpapan to the new capital city of Nusantara.
There was also a proposed Trans-Borneo railway that would connect Malaysia, Brunei, and Indoneisa, but none of the governments claim to know anything about the proposal from a private company.
I will be back in Indonesia to ride more railways in Java and to see the sections of rail in West Sumatra. If you would like more updates like this, then subscribe to my newsletter.
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