Deli Spoorweg

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Naamlooze Vennootschap Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij
legal form Naamlooze Vennootschap
founding 1883
resolution 1957 (in Holland 1968)
Reason for dissolution nationalization
Seat
Branch railroad

The Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij , usually for short (DSM), was a private railway company whose route network ran on the east coast of Sumatra , the economically most important region for the plantation economy ( Oostkust Cultuurgebet ) of the Dutch East Indies . The company, which was founded in 1883 and whose lines were built in Cape Gauge (1067 mm), was incorporated into the state network of Kereta Api Indonesia in 1957 as the last Dutch private railway .

history

Diski Train Station (1920s)
Medan-Pesar Railway Station (1950s)

The company, founded in 1883, was registered in Amsterdam , the head office was located in Serdang until 1890, then in the eponymous deli, today's Medan . The official company name was Naamlooze Vennootschap Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij. It was initially capitalized with 2.6 million guilders (florins), and in 1889 it was increased to four million. A first concession had been granted to facilitate the removal of tobacco from the highlands. The region developed rapidly in the capitalist sense . J. Th. Cremer was the founding director until 1891 , and he was a major shareholder in the tobacco wholesaling company Deli Maatschappij . The first sod was broken on July 1, 1883 by the resident of Siak Sri Indrapura . The first 56 km route cost 2.43 million fl.

Before the First World War, WHM Schadee was first boss in Medan (from 1912), then director in Amsterdam for many years. The driving force on Sumatra was GCM Smits from 1919-26, after which he also headed the company as Amsterdam director. During the Great Depression Bernardus Hermanus Antonius van Kreel stood at the top management.

Until the First World War

At the top of the company were an administrator, one or two directors and a multi-member supervisory board ( raad van commissarissen ), to which directors were also allowed to belong. If the dividend exceeded 5%, they received bonuses. An administrator who had to be a native of the Netherlands was also used in Sumatra. He was assisted by a three-person committee whose members were appointed for three years. A pension fund was set up for the company's officials, initially with ¼ million florins. After 25 years of service, you could choose between a one-off payment or a lifelong pension. In 1913 there were 28 higher and 142 middle white employees. Chinese were preferred to be employed as unskilled workers or construction workers. In 1888 28,559 tons of freight were moved, including 70% of the total tobacco production; this amount increased sevenfold by 1900 (90% of tobacco). In 1887/88 they took 20 cents per tonne-kilometer. one, per person-kilometer it was a comparatively high 3½ cents, which fell to 15 or 3 by 1900. In 1904 it carried over a million passengers for the first time.

The company's capital was increased to ten million by 1914. To finance larger investments, bonds were issued several times, for example 3½ million in 1889 and 1902 both at 4%, in 1915 at 6%, February and August 1918 at 5% and in 1920 at 7%. Also in October 1922 a loan of 5 million was issued (for 35 years, 6%). At the end of that year, there were about thirty million outstanding.

A central repair shop was built in the suburb of Poloe-Brayan , north of Medan. Rubber became more and more important as a cargo after 1910. In 1913 the number of passengers in the 1st class was 50230, II .: 151000, III .: 1.56 million (total 31.4 million passenger kilometers); Luggage 1,319 t, freight 163,000 t and around 2,000 animals. This brought a turnover of almost 3½ million florins, which was offset by only 1.45 million expenses. By 1914 the route was 263 km in operation, the comparatively light tobacco made up 8% of the freight by weight but 15% by volume. In April 1913 it was decided to increase the capital to ten million. In 1900–11 10% of the dividend was paid, in the following years up to 1919 12–15%.

In 1917, 2.7 million travelers and 617,000 tons of freight were transported. Since 1918, Besitang was connected to the network (750 mm) of Atjeh Staats Spoorwegen (AT), which led to a further upswing. In some cases, a third rail was laid in order to be able to operate the difference in gauges without reloading. The connection to Pangkalan Brandan was completed in 1919.

Interwar period

The business recovered quickly after the war-related crisis until 1920/1, in 1920 there was a strike by the native workers. The dividend dropped to 5-7% in the early 1920s.

In the interwar period, cargo such as rubber / latex, lime, palm oil , fiber plants (hemp, sisal) and tea gained in importance. At that time, branch lines from Medan were mainly being expanded. For this purpose, too, bonds were issued several times in 1925 and 1926 at 5%, the following year 4.6 million at 4½% for 40 years. Separate settlements were built for local workers at the larger train stations.

The export boom of 1926-8 produced good results. At the end of 1927 the company employed 3727 people, 174 of whom were Europeans.

In the crisis years 1929–31, revenue fell by a third due to falling freight rates and by 46% for passengers. The fare had to be reduced to 2 cents / km, which was also due to the increasing competition from buses. The volume of exported goods, especially palm oil and fibers, increased. About 8% of the workforce was cut. For the first time, there was no dividend in 1931. At the end of the year, with reduced wages, only 2,263 people were employed, 86 of them Europeans. The introduction of mixed freight and passenger trains also reduced costs. Fares were repeatedly reduced until 1935. For the 3rd class the income in 1939 was 0.6 cents / person-km.

The route network reached 553 km in 1939. In the same year, 4.1 million people took the trains, and income from freight traffic continued to rise until the outbreak of war. For the pre-war years one could distribute 2½-4½%. The development stabilized until the Japanese took over the administration . In 1941 there were 18¾ million (nominally 30) issued share capital and 17½ million long-term liabilities. The book value of the assets was around 59 million.

1942 to 1957

The Japanese called the society united with the AT Kita Sumatora Tetsudō. The headquarters building on the corner of Serdangweg and Petersburgstraat served as an internment camp for 14 Dutch employees from April – May 1942 .

At the end of 1945, the company was called Keereta Api Soematra Oetara under the control of independent Indonesia . From 1946, the Amsterdam headquarters took control again. A large part of the European workers who had been interned returned home. In the first half of 1946 there were only 22 white executives on site. In order to be able to cover the freight requirements of the plantations, the "Delispoor-AVROS transport service" was set up with trucks in 1947 (until 1951). In 1948 there were already 1½ million passengers, most of whom only covered short distances, in 3rd class at a price of 3½ cents / km.

The devaluation of the rupiah tripled the cost of imports in a short period of time. It was hard hit by the general strike that hit the region in April 1950. The number of passengers rose again quickly, in 1955 they reached 4.4 million (173 million passenger kilometers). At the same time, the number of passengers in 1st class fell by two thirds. The northern routes became increasingly unprofitable. In the politically troubled area there were repeated attacks and acts of sabotage. 1952 began with the planning of an automated signal box in Medan.

As the last private railway company, DSM was nationalized in December 1957 after the height of tensions with the Netherlands. The company, whose assets in Indonesia at the end of 1957 were 55.9 million florins, was dissolved and the Amsterdam headquarters were sold well below value in 1968. After negotiations for damages by the governments, a nominal value of 11.9 million was recognized in 1969. 55 million had been requested. The shareholders then received a severance payment of 5.9 million, payable in installments from 1971 to 2002.

Ancillary businesses

In the interwar period, bus routes that were barely profitable at the beginning (free of charge for natives as a shuttle service) began to be operated (at Brastagi, 1923)
Head office of the DSM telephone service in Medan (around 1925)

A hand-switched telephone network was operated as early as 1889 , the cables of which ran alongside the tracks and which could be used by the public. It started in 1889 with 51 connections. In 1900 around 200 participants were served. Beginning in 1910 there was also a local network in Batu Bahra (Asahan). The book value of these systems rose rapidly with the expansion, from 1903 69,000 florins to 524,000 florins in 1912. In 1915, 5.3 million calls were arranged for 1180 participants. At the beginning of the 1920s, around 2000 connections were used. Participants were divided into classes according to the number of calls to be expected and paid accordingly. From 1921 onwards, calls were billed according to districts (approx. 50 km radius). In 1927 a contract was signed with the PTT State Post for cooperation and connections to the PTT local networks in Aceh, Karo District and South Asahan . DSM undertook to modernize the systems. The depression led to fewer long-distance calls, so that in 1931 there was hardly any surplus. In 1936 a zone tariff was introduced. For the basic price of 7.50 florins you got 75 local calls for free, additional calls cost 2 cents each. In 1956 a new telephone exchange with automatic attendant was put into operation in Medan.

Coal for the locomotives was obtained in-house. From Kisaran (Asahan district), a 55 km route to the south was built in the 1920s into the coal field.

A logging concession was also held , about half of which were used for personal use. However, no teak grows on Sumatra that was commonly used for sleepers in the tropics, so steel was mostly used for these.

stretch

Name spelling follows the one common in colonial times.
Route network 1893

Line network 1918: 271 km (Cape gauge, plus 130 km narrow gauge), 1939: 554 km (Cape gauge, 197 km of which are first-class tracks with a maximum speed of 75 km / h).

The terrain of East Sumatra is flat, structurally there were seldom gradients of more than 5 ‰ to overcome. The construction of the route often proved difficult due to the numerous rivers and swamps. Provisions had to be made for the frequent floods during the monsoons and the associated damage to the tracks. The first stretches were laid in a bed of sand, and soon it was switched to gravel.

The Medan- Timbang Langkat (21 km) line was opened on April 1, 1886. It was soon extended to Salesseh . Later they were led further, almost exactly south, to a rubber plantation. The route, which was provisionally inaugurated on July 25, 1886, went to the port of Belawan near Medan (22 km), but was initially only in operation on a section to Labuhan Deli , as the construction of the bridge over the Sungei Deli proved to be difficult (new construction 1932) . Next, the branch line 12 km long from Medan south to Deli Toewo (= Deli Tua) via Kampung Bahroe was tackled. The route from Medan to Perbaeongan passed through Serdang , which was developed as a center of coffee cultivation in the 1890s, and Lubukpakam . From this place later to the south branching off towards Bangungpurba routes served rubber plantations. By 1890, the 103 km route had been completed. At that time bridges were built for axle loads of 10–11 t. The crisis in tobacco sales in 1894 initially prevented financing for the planned expansion to Arnhemia, Bangun Purba and Rampah.

In 1900 efforts were made to obtain concessions for the Perbaoengan-Bamban lines (after 1904 extended to Tebingtinggi ), Timbang Langkat- Tandjoeng , Poera-Pangkalan Brandan. The lines were all laid out on a single track. The operating license was greatly expanded in 1913. The line from Besitang was extended to the port of Pangkalan Soesoe at the end of 1921 . From Salesseh a short branch line was extended south to Kwala (= Kuala) for the removal of wood.

From Tebingtinggi a route branched off in a southerly direction to Pematang Siantar . This was the first real mountain route of the DSM, on the first 8 km the gradient was 10 ‰, on the last 6 km before Dolok Merangir it was up to 20 ‰. To serve this section four more powerful locomotives, named after the place as Siantar type , were procured.

Closer to the coast was the railway to Kisaran (1927 branch to Telukinibung harbor ) via Tanjungbalai , construction of which began during the First World War. Kiaran-Goenting Saga (6.7 million fl.) Opened on September 4, 1924, the extension to Milan (5.2 million) on January 1, 1931. The bridge over the Sungei Asahan was the longest at 75 m. which the DSM had built. The 110 km through hilly terrain from Kisaran, the section of the route from Milano to Rantau Prapat , was the last new main line before the war. It went into operation in 1937. The laying of welded rails began in 1935 and was one of the first railway companies to introduce this technology.

In addition to replacing damaged locomotives and wagons, there was a need to replace over 200,000 old sleepers at short notice in 1947. By 1950, the network had been established to such an extent that top speeds of 50 km / h were possible. After the war, hard coal was obtained from Western Sumatra.

vehicles

1st and 2nd class passenger cars (1920s)
DSM 35 .. Locomotive of the Deli Spoorweg in front of the Mosque of Medan

A Hartmann steam locomotive 4T 2-6 ( Sächsische Maschinenfabrik ) built in Chemnitz in 1914 is exhibited in front of the Medan train station . In 1919 the DSM had 29 locomotives of various types. In addition there were 112 passenger, 27 luggage, 529 goods and 601 other types of wagons. With the expansion of the 1920s, rolling stock rose to and from 1936. a. 61 locomotives, 10 railcars, 167 passenger, 54 baggage, 23 cattle and 1,451 freight cars. For express trains, 22 1C2 locomotives were procured, preferably from Hanomag and Werkspoor .

After the war they still owned 58 locomotives. Of these, 12 were shunting locomotives (average age 59 years), 9 light (ø 50 years) and 37 medium or heavy locomotives (ø 30 years). Some of the latter were switched to diesel in the early 1950s.

literature

  • Meijer, H. (* 1904); De Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij: driekwart eeuw koloniaal spoor; Zutphen 1987 (Walburg Pers); 152 pp.
  • Weisfelt, Jacobus; De Deli Spoorweg Maatschappij as factor in de economische ontwikkeling van de Oostskust van Sumatra; s. l., sn [Rotterdam 1972 (Bronder-Offset)]

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nedl. Staatscourant , July 25, 1883, No. 172.
  2. ↑ 1863: 1. Plantation-based tobacco cultivation. 1869: Opening of the Suez Canal. 1870: Agricultural law, permits long-term agricultural concessions. 1880: Pen Ordinance. 1902/3: "Korte Verklaring" finally overturns local rulers. 1909/10: Beginning of the rubber boom.
  3. ↑ cf. Rubber boom
  4. ↑ Most of the plantations went into the hands of corporations. North Sumatra produced almost half of the rubber in the Dutch East Indies in 1932, that is 11% of world production. Airriess, Christopher A .; Global Economy and Port Morphology in Belawan, Indonesia; Geographical Review, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Apr., 1991), p. 188. In 1940, 12,000 tea were transported. Rubber price / lb. (cent.): 1928> 100, 1934: approx. 10, 1937: around 40.
  5. ↑ Via the port of Belawan alone in 1927 + 31% export, + 16% imports. Low passenger waste. Net surplus 5 million. Dividend 1926: 12%, 1927-29: 13%, 1930: 10%. Annual report
  6. ↑ Annual salaries for Europeans from ø 7000 to 5000 florins. Simple workers still achieved a good wage of around 20 florins per month compared to Java, with free work clothes. Meijer (1987), p. 76
  7. ↑ SERIOUS STRIKES IN EAST SUMATRA AND JAVA. . In: The West Australian (Perth, WA: 1879-1954) , National Library of Australia, April 5, 1950, p. 4. Retrieved June 23, 2013. 
  8. ↑ cf. Dutch-Indonesian Union
  9. ↑ On the changes in the interwar period see: Gewijzidge concessie-voorwaarden van de Deli spoorwegmaatschappij; Amsterdam 1918

See also

Web links

Commons : Deli Railway Company  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files