A team of Identification Mission on the Revitalisation of Indonesia’s Railway Stations, consisted of Homme Heringa of Bureau Spoorbouwmeester and Ben de Vries of Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency, was invited by PT Kereta Api’s Center for Historical Asset Preservation. The mission aims at defining Indonesian-Dutch cooperation in conserving and revitalising historical railway stations in Indonesia in their urban setting and social development. At the end of the visit, the team would recommend the possibility of Indonesian and Dutch cooperation in conserving and revitalising the stations.
On 13th-20th September 2009 the team built a network with the main stakeholders and identified issues on historical railway stations revitalisation, of which numbers were up to 900 stations. Discussions about them were hold at least twice in Jakarta Kota Station on 14th September and Semarang Tawang Station on 16th September.
IRPS were asked to participate in the discussions as an information source. In a discussion in Jakarta which was moderated by Bambang Eryudhawan of Badan Pelestarian Pusaka Indonesia (BPPI/Indonesian Heritage Trust), IRPS Chairman Aditya DL presented a paper titled “Revitalising and Conserving Indonesian Railway Station”. Other discussion participants were Junus Satrio Atmodjo, Tourism and Culture Ministry’s head of cultural research and development; Paul Peters of the Dutch Embassy, Pingki Pangestu of Real Estat Indonesia (Indonesian Real Estate Developers Association), Asep Kambali of Komunitas Historia (Historia Community), a representative of Pusat Dokumentasi Arsitektur (Indonesian Center for Architecture Documentation) and several persons from BPPI.
In Semarang, IRPS’ Tjahjono Rahardjo presented a paper titled “Semarang, Where the Journey Started” in a limited and informal discussion. IRPS was the only participant to present its paper. Other participants were a team of Dutch (including Gerard de Graaf of Stichting Backer-Du Croo), A Kriswandhono (architect and archaeologist currently dealing with Lawang Sewu conservation) and Widya Wijayanti (architect).
In both discussions, IRPS stated the main function of a station was a place where passengers boarded or disembarked trains and switched to other means of transportation. On the other hand, a station should have a positive impact on a city’s development. Therefore, there were different treatments to active and inactive railway stations because of their different characters. Homme Heringa added a station was also a city’s gate. An active railway station’s ability to do its functions was a benchmark of its existence. IRPS saw a potential conflict between revitalisation and conservation. If one talked about conservation, one should consider railway technology and city development, which of course was different compared to times when a station was built. In Semarang Tawang Station case, environmental damage (flood) was also needed to considered. In Netherland, many railway station buildings were replaced by new ones or moved because they could not accomodate present demand. Therefore, one could not talk about conservation at all cost.
In both discussions, IRPS’ Deddy Herlambang was actively participated although he acted as a personnel of PT Kereta Api’s Center for Historical Asset Preservation.