Tanah Abang railway station

Tanah Abang Station (THB) is a railway station located in Kampung Bali, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia. The station located to the east of West Flood Canal, and serves Rangkasbitung and Cikarang Loop lines of KRL Commuterline. The station and the canal are only separated by a small, narrow embankment and as such, Tanah Abang station is prone to flooding, especially during the heavy rain season.

Tanah Abang station serves as the terminus for Rangkasbitung Line. It used to serve some intercity services, but after the opening of Rangkasbitung, all local train services towards Merak use Rangkasbitung station as their terminus, therefore local train services do not stop in Tanah Abang station anymore.

This station, alongside Duri railway station, serves as transit stations for the only train services towards South Tangerang and Tangerang, both in Banten. As commuters from these two satellite cities need to change train here before going to other places in Jakarta, these two stations tend to be crowded especially in rush hour.

Tanah Abang locomotive depot was located north of the station. It was demolished in 2023 to make way for the station's expansion project. The demolition work was started on 25 December 2022. After demolition, two derelict locomotives of BB304 class and BB306 class each and two freight cars remains at the site. They were scrapped on 13 March 2023. The physical construction of the station's expansion was started on 30 April 2023.

1899-1997


The history of Tanah Abang station was date back from 1899 railway line Jakarta–Anyer Kidul. The first segment, Jakarta–Tanah Abang–Rangkasbetung (currently Rangkasbitung) was opened on 1 October 1899 according to State Railway Company of the Dutch East Indies' 1921, 1925 and 1932 Annual Report.

1997-present


The original station building has been demolished and replaced with the present two-story building, which is equipped with a passenger crossing bridge and escalators. This building was inaugurated on 3 June 1997 by the then Minister of Transportation, Haryanto Dhanutirto. This new building was made to accommodate KRL Commuterline passengers, which at that time were already operating on the Tanah Abang–Serpong route.

On late December 2022, the Ministry of Transportation revealed the plan for Tanah Abang Station extension. It is planned that the new Tanah Abang Station building will be built on a 4 hectares site located 500 m from the existing building, namely the Tanah Abang Locomotive Depot. The extension plan was carried out due to Tanah Abang Station has become one of the busiest stations on the KRL Commuterline system (with 48,000 daily ridership and 150,000 transit passengers) and the capacity needed to be extended. The construction of the new Tanah Abang station was started with the demolition of the locomotive depot that will become the site for the new station building.

After the depot demolition completed, on 30 April 2023, the physical construction of the new station building was started marked with the groundbreaking ceremony attended by the Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi, Acting Governor of Jakarta Heru Budi Hartono, and the President Director of Kereta Api Indonesia Didiek Hartantyo. It is expected that the capacity will be extended from 100.000 to 300.000 daily passengers. It is also estimated that the first phase of the station's extension and developments will cost IDR 380.93 billion. The surrounding area of the station will be redeveloped into an integrated transit-oriented development.

Building and layout
Tanah Abang Station originally had five railway lines. Line 2 is a straight double track heading to Duri-Kampung Bandan, line 3 is a straight double track track going to Sudirman-Manggarai, and line 5 is a single straight track going to Rangkasbitung-Merak. After the construction of a double track on the Tanah Abang-Serpong segment on 4 July 2007, the layout of the station was overhauled so that the number of lines increased to six with line 5 being a double track straight from Rangkasbitung-Merak and line 6 being a straight line in the direction of Rangkasbitung-Merak. This station is also equipped with a locomotive depot which is located to the northeast of the station and is directly connected to line 1.

Over time, this station also continues to grow, with a new entrance and exit building located close to the Tanah Abang Locomotive Depot. The new entrance and exit building is also equipped with various new facilities, such as various shops. The entrance and exit of this station have been integrated with the pedestrian bridge which faces Jalan Jatibaru Bengkel, as well as the skybridge that connects Tanah Abang Station with Tanah Abang Market.

In order to create a new public transportation intermodal integration, on May-June 2020, the north entrance of the station was overhauled with modern design to create a new plaza for supporting transportation intermodal shelters.

In addition to serving KRL and Locomotive Railroads, Tanah Abang Station is also used as a parking lot for the Jayakarta series, a long series of passenger trains consisting of 15 trains in one series, which previously was a parking lot for the Gumarang series and now this series has been moved to Tanjung Priuk Station. Priuk since the Jayakarta series came to Tanah Abang Station to change the parking space that was previously at Tanjung Priuk Station. Starting in July 2022, the parking lot for the long-distance and long-distance trains (Jayakarta) was at Tanah Abang Station and now the long-distance and long-distance trains have been moved to the Cipinang Train Depot (CPN) to make it easier to send the trains to Pasar Senen Station. Starting on 25 December 2022 all locomotives, EMU Helpers, and Inspection Trains (KAIS) at the Tanah Abang Locomotive Depot (which is located 500 m from the station) were moved to the Cipinang Locomotive Depot, and it is planned that the Tanah Abang Locomotive Depot here will be the New Tanah Abang Station. Indeed, it has been a long time since the Jakarta Provincial Government, the Ministry of Transportation, and PT KAI have planned to build a new Tanah Abang Station building, carrying the concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD). Apart from the station, apartments will also be built like those at Tanjung Barat Station and Pondok Cina Station. The new station building construction was started on 30 April 2023.

Passenger services

 * KAI Commuter
 * Cikarang Loop Line (Full Racket)
 * to Cikarang (counter-clockwise via Manggarai)
 * to Cikarang (clockwise via Duri and Kampung Bandan)
 * Cikarang Loop Line (Half Racket), to Angke/Kampung Bandan (via Duri) and Cikarang
 * Rangkasbitung Line, to Serpong, Parungpanjang, Tigaraksa, and Rangkasbitung

Defunct services

 * Loop Line, to Bogor, Nambo, Jatinegara (Replaced by Cikarang Loop Line)
 * Kalimaya intercity (Merak-Tanah Abang) closed 1 April 2017
 * Patas Merak intercity (Merak-Angke via Tanah Abang) closed 1 April 2017
 * Rangkas Jaya intercity (Tanah Abang-Rangkasbitung) closed 1 April 2017
 * Krakatau intercity (Merak-Kediri via Tanah Abang) closed 17 July 2017. The service now only serves Pasar Senen-Blitar route and renamed Singosari

Supporting transportation


The north entrance of Tanah Abang station was overhauled on May-June 2020 to create a new plaza for integrating the station with supporting transportation modes such as TransJakarta, mikrolet, and auto rickshaws (bajaj).

Places of interest

 * Textile Museum (Jakarta)
 * Tanah Abang Market

Incidents

 * On 2 February 2007, there was a flood that inundated Tanah Abang Station. As a result, the KRL Commuterline's travel route was disrupted.
 * On 10 February 2007 at 08:47, economy-class train numbered 906 with the route Tanah Abang–Rangkasbitung was dropped when the train was about to depart from Tanah Abang Station. The incident happened because the train signaling system was not functioning properly due to the massive floods that hit Jakarta a few weeks earlier.
 * On 31 October 2008 at 09:55, 3 coal train cars with the number Gapeka 2012 derailed at Tanah Abang Station. This incident was most likely caused by the driver's negligence when braking the train on the switch.
 * On 17 January 2013, the Tanah Abang station was totally paralysed by a massive flood that hits Jakarta. As the result, KRL Commuterline services were disrupted.