Geographical Factors and Their Impacts on Railway Construction

Abstract

Indonesian railway development in the Dutch colonial period is a form of new technology use, especially in the field of transportation. Between the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth, the Dutch East Indies government needed a means of transportation to move a large amount of plantation products quickly to ports. The requirement aimed to maintain the quality of the plantation products from being stored in the warehouse too long because they might rot. For the transportation need, the railway was built. In general, plantations were located in rural areas with difficult geographic conditions. The distance between the plantations and the port was very far away. The railroad was built through areas with specific geographical condition like steep hilly, streams, rice fields, flat lands, and so on. The geography condition was very influential on the construction of railroads. The aspects that it influenced were budget, length of work, lane direction, and so on. This article presents the results of geographic factors impact research on the construction of railway conducted by the Dutch East Indies Government in Priangan Residency. The writing of this article is based on historical studies by using historical sources.