• GE in Indonesia

  • Discussion of General Electric locomotive technology. Current official information can be found here: www.getransportation.com.
Discussion of General Electric locomotive technology. Current official information can be found here: www.getransportation.com.

Moderators: MEC407, AMTK84

  by MEC407
 
From The Jakarta Post:
The Jakarta Post wrote:Locomotive maker GE Transportation and state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to form a locomotive service alliance.

The MoU, signed in Washington D.C. in the US by GE Transportation president and CEO Lorenzo Simonelli and PT KAI president director Ignatius Jonan, creates a framework for the companies to create a locomotive service center for ASEAN, GE Transportation said in a media statement received by The Jakarta Post on Friday.
...
“GE Transportation has had a long partnership with Indonesia. The MoU will provide reliable locomotive service to the country for decades,” Simonelli said as quoted in the statement. “We are looking forward to serving our customer, PT KAI, and contributing to Indonesia’s sustainable infrastructure growth for many years to come.”
Read more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012 ... enter.html
  by MEC407
 
And also from The Jakarta Globe:
The Jakarta Globe wrote:The center will serve customers in Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, they said in a statement released in Jakarta.
...
There are about 250 GE locomotives in operation in Indonesia, including some that have been successfully operating for more than 34 years.
Read more at: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/business ... ter/502104
  by Allen Hazen
 
250 GE locomotives, out of atonal diesel locomotive fleet of(according to the first article you linked to) 314. For a country with the population of Indonesia, this is a pathetically small railroad network! Of course, it is an an archipelago, so there is no long distance rail freight: my guess is that the proportion of freight to passenger business on the Indonesian rail network is comparable to that of Britain or Japan. ... The people who run the country, however, seem to ee the need: mention is made of the building (to be completed this year) of a new, 800 km, route in Java, the most densely populated island.

The hint venture being announced seems to be fairly modest: setting up, with GE advice and maybe some new machinery, a traction-motor rebuilding facility. It will be interesting to see how this developed in coming years.

(You must be one of the best-informed people on your block: not only do you read the Erie, PA, newspaper, but you follow the Jakarta press as well! (Grin!))
  by MEC407
 
From the Jakarta Post:
Jakarta Post wrote:US-based General Electric (GE) aims to supply locomotives for railway services on Sumatra and Sulawesi islands.

The routes are still under development and are targeted to be finished by 2019 for Sulawesi and 2021 for Sumatra. The government says the projects will not be affected by recent budget cuts.

“We are still waiting for the tender; we will submit it immediately,” GE Indonesia operations president director David Hutagalung told The Jakarta Post during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between state-owned railway operator KAI and the US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) in Jakarta on Friday.
Read the rest of the article at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016 ... awesi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
  by Allen Hazen
 
MEC407--
Thank you for continuing to monitor the "Jakarta Post" for us! (Grin!)
This is interesting news, but tantalizingly short on details: how big are the new rail projects, and how many locomotives will they require?
One bit of Sulawesi (some of us old timers still have to translate that to "The Celebes") news at
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015 ... oject.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
suggests a line, to be completed in 2018, of only 145 km. The photo shows somebody (Jokowi himself?) standing beside a model of an electric m.u. train, but this doesn't necessarily mean the new line will be electrified: it might just be that this was the model the railway administration's p.r. department had on hand to display at a photo-op.
A reference near the end of the article to "land clearance" is disheartening: I'd like to see more railways in Indonesia, but I'd also like it if more tropical forest was left uncleared!
If Wikipedia is to be believed, there are currently three unconnected rail networks in Sumatra. With any luck they are all of the same gauge (I think Indonesia is a big user of metre-gauge), and new lines might connect them. Since Sumatra has a bit more than twice the land area of Great Britain, and a population roughly equivalent to that of England, it DESERVES an extensive rail network. With GE locomotives.
  by obsessed railfan
 
I think it is great that Indonesia continues to purchase new GE locomotives. They recently received another batch of double ended CM20EMP from GE this year. It is clear they have a preference for GE locomotives, although they were somewhat of a late comer to GE products. Aside from the unique pre Universal Series double ended shovelnoses, Indonesia bought mostly EMD products until the late 1970s and 1980s when they started to acquire a large U18C fleet. Today their GE fleet includes U18C, U20C, and CM20EMP models. It seems the CM20EMP was developed specifically for Indonesia, although they coincidentally may be the only buyers. In addition to Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil also continue to be loyal GE users, both recently acquiring new large export road locomotives. As with GE's domestic locomotives, most modern export designs are large road locomotive variety, so I am glad to see there is still a market for smaller and medium sized export road locomotives such as the CM20EMP in Indonesia.
  by MEC407
 
That warms my dear little 8-cylinder heart. :-D Thanks for the info, obsessed railfan and Mr. Hazen!
  by Pneudyne
 
The Indonesian variant of the [8-cylinder] U20C, with its “wedge” nose, might have been unique to that operator.
GEJ-6772 fc.jpg
GEJ-6772 fp.i.jpg
GEJ-6772 p.03.jpg

In fact, I am not sure if there were any other operators who received 8-cylinder U20Cs, even in conventional road-switcher form. Nor is it clear whether the erstwhile 12-cylinder U20C was discontinued when the 8-cylinder model was introduced. This is not easily deduced from the available lists.

Indonesia also had some U18A1A models with A1A-A1A running gear, some of which I think were later converted to U18C form. GE had previously set its face against the A1A-A1A wheel arrangement, as recorded in an article in ‘Diesel Railway Traction’ for 1958 December. However, it had relented in 1974 when it built both the UM10A1A for Hedjaz Jordan and the U15A1A for Sudan.

Cheers,