Indonesia
Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state: some 17,000 islands strung between the Indian and Pacific oceans, 1.9 million square kilometres of land, and more than 270 million people. It is the fourteenth-largest country on earth by area, shares land borders with Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste, and holds one of the highest levels of biodiversity anywhere — most of what a traveller sees is water, volcano and forest.
The railway is far more concentrated than the country. Almost all of it is on Java — narrow, crowded and impossibly green — with a separate group of lines on Sumatra, so a nation the size of a continent is crossed by train on essentially one island. Dutch engineers laid the first track there in the 1860s and spent decades threading lines up volcanoes and through the highlands; the national operator, Kereta Api Indonesia, works the result on 1,067 mm gauge today. The trains are clean, punctual, inexpensive and heavily used, and they range from a 350 km/h bullet train to a wood-fired cog locomotive of 1902 that still climbs one of the last rack railways on earth.
Rail journeys in Indonesia
The Ambarawa Rack Railway
In the hills of Central Java, a wood-fired cog locomotive from 1902 still bites its way up a toothed mountain rail — one of the last of its kind on earth.
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The Argo Wilis
A whole unhurried day crossing Java, winding through the volcanoes and rice terraces of the Priangan highlands in a big-windowed carriage.
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The Bogor–Sukabumi Line
A slow, cheap and gorgeous ride on the first railway into West Java's highlands — over the shoulder of a volcano and through Indonesia's oldest rail tunnel.
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The Mak Itam
A wood-and-coal steam locomotive nicknamed the black uncle still fires up in a Dutch mining town, sole survivor of a rack railway in West Sumatra.
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The Taksaka
Indonesia's classic tourist train — a fast executive express named for a mythic dragon, running from Jakarta straight into the heart of Yogyakarta.
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Whoosh — the Jakarta–Bandung Bullet Train
Southeast Asia's first high-speed train hurls itself out of Jakarta at 350 km/h and reaches the edge of Bandung in barely forty minutes.
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What are the best train journeys in Indonesia?
Most are on Java, and they span the whole spectrum. Whoosh is Southeast Asia's first high-speed train, covering the old three-hour Jakarta–Bandung run in about 40 minutes at 350 km/h. The Taksaka is the classic tourist express, running from Jakarta straight into the heart of Yogyakarta for Borobudur and Prambanan, while the Argo Wilis spends a full scenic day crossing the island through the volcanic Priangan highlands. For something slower there is the old Bogor–Sukabumi line through Indonesia's first railway tunnel, and the 1902 cog locomotives of the Ambarawa rack railway. And on Sumatra, the black steam locomotive Mak Itam still runs at the UNESCO coal town of Sawahlunto.
Is there a high-speed train in Indonesia?
Yes. Whoosh, which opened in October 2023, links Jakarta and Bandung at up to 350 km/h — the first high-speed railway anywhere in Southeast Asia. It cuts a journey that once took around three hours by ordinary train to roughly 40 minutes. One thing to know: the line does not run into central Bandung, so most passengers change at Padalarang for a free connecting feeder train into the city. It is operated by Kereta Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC).
How good are Indonesia's trains, and who runs them?
Indonesia's railways are run by the state operator Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), which carried about 453 million passengers in 2024. On Java the trains are modern, air-conditioned, reserved-seat and reliably punctual, with a clear class system from Economy up to Executive and premium Panoramic carriages. Tickets are easily booked online through KAI. The network dates back to 1867 and is built mostly on 1,067 mm narrow gauge, though newer lines like Whoosh use standard gauge.
Can you take the train all over Indonesia?
Not quite — Indonesia's railways are concentrated on Java, which has by far the largest and best network, with separate, disconnected lines on Sumatra and a single route in South Sulawesi. Bali, Kalimantan and the eastern islands have no passenger trains at all. Java is where most of the classic journeys are: you can cross the whole island by rail, from Jakarta in the west to Surabaya and Banyuwangi in the east, changing between fast intercity services and slow, scenic mountain lines. Sumatra is more fragmentary, but it holds one true gem — the heritage Mak Itam steam railway in the old coal town of Sawahlunto, in the highlands of the west.