U

nlike Old Town in West Jakarta, the history of the once beautiful train station in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, is all but forgotten due to a lack of promotion from the city administration and the state-owned railway company PT KAI.

Dhanu Wibowo, a member of the Indonesian History Community (KHI), said in recent years, his community had arranged several trips to highlight areas of historical interest along the capital's coast, including Tanjung Priok Station, Pitung House and the Al Alam Mosque in Marunda.

'Our tour participants were excited about the destinations because they were bored with the usual sites in Old Town,' Dhanu told The Jakarta Post recently.

He said unfortunately, the train station failed to be an inspiring tourist destination due to the limited information available.

Kartum Setiawan, the founder of Komunitas Jelajah Budaya, another community that regularly tours sites of interest in the city, said his group once ran a tour that included a historical railway trail that took place in Kota, Senen and Tanjung Priok stations.

'Participants from Depok and Bekasi were enthusiastic because they were not familiar with Tanjung Priok as it was not integrated with routes from their local stations,' he told the Post over the phone.

The station's selling point, he said, was its architectural heritage.

'It was the biggest and busiest train station in the country at one time,' Kartum said.

Today, the communities are concerned that tourists face hurdles when planning trips to the site.

Dhanu said it was difficult to reach the station by private vehicle because of the congested roads that lead to the station.

Taking public transportation to the station is also a challenge as well because of how many times drivers will stop for passengers, meaning the length of the journey is hard to estimate.

The long-planned reopening of an old track connecting Tanjung Priok Station and Kota Station in West Jakarta may solve traffic congestion in the area.

Hermanto Dwiatmoko, the head of the railway affairs directorate general at the Transportation Ministry, said PT KAI was in the process of preparing the route, which he said, would be finished in the next three months.

'We are now testing the old track and familiarizing residents who sometimes use the railway track as a parking spot,' he told the Post.

Founder of Sahabat Museum (Friends of the Museum) Ade Purnama said, Tanjung Priok Station might not be one of the top destinations in North Jakarta, but the re-opening of the old track would change this.

He said PT KAI would still need a well-planned strategy to market the historical train station to domestic and foreign tourists.

'For example, PT KAI could use the historical Bon Bon locomotive to pull antique wagons that could transport tourists, like the vintage train in Ambarawa [Central Java]. We can also combine tours in Tanjung Priok Station and Old Town in Kota,' he said.

Bon Bon was Jakarta's first electric locomotive, named so because of its similarity to a candy box.

Opened on April 6, 1925, the station marked the first electric-train service in the Dutch East Indies. It has been declared a type A heritage building by the city administration.

The station once had a hotel, a bar, a cargo station and was the main transit point for traders exiting ships at Tanjung Priok harbor for Batavia, the old name for Jakarta.

Although the government renovated the building in 2009, many parts of it remain in a state of disrepair. The ornamental ceiling is riddled with mold, while some of the outer walls have been defaced by vandals or stained by dirt.

The bunker in the station, estimated to be have been constructed between 1938 and 1940, is often inundated by rainwater as such, it is blighted by damp.

Hermanto said he was not aware of the damage, but he promised to check it. He said his directorate was still studying the possibility of establishing a museum in the station without damaging its historical values and architecture.

Meanwhile, Minister of Transportation EE Mangindaan said he wanted to see a more modern train station that would support the minimum standard of service. During his speech in the National Dialogue of the Resurrection of the Indonesian Railway at Tanjung Priok Station, he said he hoped to see parking lots and shops at train stations.

'To Pak Jonan, will it be possible to make high rise stations through cooperation with private entities that want to make apartments and malls,' he said as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday. He was referring to KAI director Ignasius Jonan.

Mangindan said he was inspired by the concept of integration after visiting various European countries and Japan.