Nederlands-Indische Spoorweg
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The Nederlands-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (abbreviated NIS ) was the first private railway company in the Dutch East Indies . 1867-1924 they built or bought a total of 855 km of track. During its existence until nationalization in 1943, the company acquired 160 standard gauge locomotives. The state successor company is now called Kereta Api Indonesia .
history
As early as 1842, there had been repeated suggestions for building a railway on Java. The governor-general van de Beele broke ground on June 17, 1864 for the first railway line in the colony. Two years earlier, the license had been granted to Mr. W. Poolmann, who then founded the company. The first line in standard gauge over 25 km after its opening on August 10, 1867, connected Tanggung and Semarang , where the company's administrative headquarters were also established. A new building was completed in 1907.
The operation was initially unprofitable, so the government turned to finance the main stretch of 166 km to Yogyakarta through the foothills . Financial aid and a dividend guarantee were granted on the condition that a 111 km long branch line was led to Ambawara so that the strategically important Fort Willem I received a rail connection (closed in 1977). By 1870 109 km had been built, in 1917 206 km were operated in standard gauge. With the branch lines (1067 mm), a total of 419 km was reached.
One of the first NIS narrow-gauge lines was the one from the governor's seat in Buitenzorg to the capital Batavia (with a branch to Master Cornelis, 1 km, and Kleine Boom, 2 km), which opened after two years of construction on January 31, 1873 and was soon profitable . The short urban line to Kleine Boom was abandoned in 1872. Since it had no connection to the rest of the NIS network, the line from Bogor was sold to the Staatsspoorwegen (SS) on November 1, 1913 . At the end of 1918 there were 57 locomotives, 35 passenger cars, 136 baggage cars and 1,493 freight cars. Almost 23,000 train movements covered around 1.23 million km. In 1917 almost 4 million passengers were carried, 3.99 million of them in 3rd class. Repair works were maintained in Yogjakarta and Tjepoe .
The 2nd class lines were expanded to 602 km by 1936, the main lines, both gauges, were 863 km long. A compensation payment was received for the transit of the SS trains between Batavia and Surabaya. The administrative board ( Raad van Beheer ) had its seat in 's-Gravenhage , in the colony the Commité van Bestuur managed the business. At the end of 1937 37 men were employed in the higher, 274 in the middle and 3,557 in the simple service.
| vehicle | Standard gauge | Cape Track |
|---|---|---|
| Locomotives | 64 | 102 |
| Passenger cars | 99 | 234 |
| Baggage cart | 29 | 51 |
| Freight wagons | 1750 | 1807 |
| (As of Jan. 1, 1937) | ||
After the outbreak of the Second World War, an order for diesel-electric multiple units of the Beijnes brand had to be canceled. The high-performance steam locomotives ordered from Werkspoor were also unable to reach their destination after the occupation of the Netherlands in June 1940. For strategic reasons, the Solo-Gundih line was equipped with a third rail so that narrow-gauge locomotives could also run from Semarang to Solo via Gambringan. Numerous locomotives of the 381-400 series (renamed to class C52) were taken to other regions by the Japanese. Although these were returned after the war, they were no longer usable after modifications to the meter gauge.
literature
- Journal: Verslagende het spoor en tramwegwezen in Nederlandsch-Indië; Batavia 1.1914-16.1930 (ZDB-ID: 753565-x)
- Encyclopaedie van Nederlandsch-Indië 1917-3, entries Spoor- en Tramwegen in Vols. IV and VII
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lawang Sewu will no longer be a haunted, sad place
- ↑ See Stieltjes, TJ; Voorloping Verslag over verbetrde vervoermiddelen op Java; Nov 6, 1862
- ↑ New building 1910 history
- ↑ Samarang NIS: traces of Indonesia's first railway station found