Stasiun Balapan Solo

Solo is the capital city of central Java province (Jawa Tengah). Stasium Balapan is the main railway station of Solo. It is situated at a distance of 2 kms from central Solo. The building of the station has a colonial look. At the time of the Dutch reign, there were extensive constructions of railway tracks in the Java Island. The first railroads that were built were all standard gauge in southern Java by the Nederlandse Indische Spoorwegen Maatschappij (NISM, the Dutch Indies Railroad Company) in the mid 1860s. Solo is in the main railway- road that connects Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. It has also connection with Bandung. Train services are very good. Frequent day and night trains of different classes arrive and depart from the Stasium Balapan station.

The best railway transport network is Java. Here there are two major rail lines that run the length and breadth of the island. There are several minor lines as well. State run PT Kereta Api has a monopoly over rail transport, with passenger and freight service on all the lines. There is also commuter rail service in the Jakarta metropolitan area. Narrow gauge lines which are cheaper were extensively laid to extend the network. A three feet, six inch gauge became the standard throughout the islands.

Steam locomotives used to roll down the tracks of Indonesia well into the post-independence period. However by the 1980’s most steam engines were scrapped and replaced by electric ones. Private railroads owned by the Dutch and other foreigners were nationalized by 1971. A major project called the Trans-Sulawesi is proposed to be undertaken by the government to revamp the railway network. The project once completed will have railway tracks running through the length and breadth of Sulawesi, with a 150 km link between Makassar and Pare-Pare.