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Your letters: Offering railway history to tourists
This refers to âCentral Java to reopen 13 railway lines,â (The Jakarta Post, Dec
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his refers to 'Central Java to reopen 13 railway lines,' (The Jakarta Post, Dec. 18).
This could be a very interesting and important tourist attraction. Firstly, the railway system itself as it is very old. The Ambarawa-Tuntang track was built in early 1900 by the Dutch to support their army bastion in Ambarawa.
The track passess the spectacular scenery of Lake Rawa Pening, Mount Merbabu, Mount Telomoyo and Mount Ungaran in the background. Still fresh in my mind are the original stations along the line, for example Banyubiru or Tuntang stations, which have tower-control rooms and old signal equipment. All were working when I lived there in the 1970s.
Nearby is Ambarawa Station with its famous Railway Museum, which I would recommend anyone to visit. It has collection of steam locomotives including one built by Krupp in the 1920s.
Those steam engines are lovingly maintained by engineers of state-owned railway operator PT KAI and some are still in working condition and KAI offers tours in old passenger carriages driven by those steam engines.
Rabby Kaware
Jakarta
