Out of the destruction, an old coastal railway finds new life

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A colonial-era railway that was once the lifeblood of Indonesia’s Aceh paradoxically could be revived in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami, which obliterated the coastline of the province.

Built in 1876 by the Dutch, the 372-mile single-gauge railway in the north of Sumatra island, linking the provincial capital Banda Aceh to the city of Medan, sank into oblivion a century later as unrest took hold.

The railway reached its zenith just before World War II, when up to 9,000 people used it daily, transporting about 500 tons of goods to and from the staunchly Muslim area.

Steam trains plying the unique and narrow track along the scenic northeast coast of Aceh remained in use until the mid-1970s, when a bloody separatist conflict began that lasted until last year, leaving Aceh in isolation.

Yard by yard, the unused rails were overgrown by expanding paddy fields or subsumed by towns, while stations were gradually converted or neglected. Some sections of the track were smothered with asphalt and used as narrow roads.

In 2004, Indonesia asked the French railway operator SNCF to conduct a feasibility study on restoring the line. The company agreed on Dec. 20, six days before the tsunami that killed about 168,000 people in Aceh alone.

Shocked by the scale of the catastrophe, SNCF Chief Executive Officer Louis Gallois offered to undertake the study free of charge, and specialists were appointed to get to work in May 2005.

They traveled to a devastated Aceh and worked in damaged cities such as Banda Aceh, Sigli, Bireuen and Lhokseumawe.

“We were still able to find technicians and engineers who were involved with the train,” said Michel Antraigue, an adviser to SNCF International in Indonesia.

The French workers traced the tracks, which sometimes disappeared under houses or thick vegetation, and checked the state of the slowly corroding metal bridges constructed for the railway.

Numerous local officials told them of their desire to see the return of the train.

Their work was documented by filmmakers commissioned by SNCF who created “Travelogues of Sumatra,” which scored a prize last month in Paris at a film festival focusing on construction and the environment.

In their report, the engineers concluded that a resumption of rail traffic was possible if substantial work is carried out, such as widening the gauge from 28 inches to 4.75 feet.

“Everything needs tidying up as far as the route is concerned,” Eric Dussiot, an SNCF architect, says in the film.

The railway was built for trains expected to move at a maximum speed of 50 mph, but the French have recommended making it suited to trains traveling 50 percent faster.

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