Manggarai Station: Jakarta's Commuter Railway Hub Set to Serve Long-Distance Trains

RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta – Manggarai Station is a major railway station in South Jakarta, Indonesia. The station serves several urban rail routes and is set to begin serving long-distance trains soon.

The station primarily serves the KRL Commuter Line, an electric commuter rail system operating across the Jakarta metropolitan area, serving the Bogor Line (Red Line) and Cikarang Loop Line (Blue Line). It also serves the KRL Commuter Soekarno-Hatta Line, an airport rail service connecting passengers to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.

According to Indonesia’s state railway company, Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), the name Manggarai comes from the Manggarai people of Flores Island, East Nusa Tenggara, who were sent to Batavia, the former name of Jakarta, as slaves during the Dutch East Indies period in the 17th century. They later settled in an area near Manggarai Station, which gradually developed into a village.

Manggarai Station originated from a railway line built by the private railway company Nederlandsch Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (NIS) to connect Batavia with Bogor, West Java, to the south. The line was opened in stages during the 1870s.

As part of the line, NIS built a branch line to Meester Cornelis Station in South Jakarta, named after the Meester Cornelis area, which is now known as Jatinegara. The station, inaugurated in 1872, was decommissioned in 1918 and is now used as a KRL Commuter Line depot.

The NIS railway network in Batavia was fully acquired by the Dutch East Indies state railway company, Staatsspoorwegen (SS), in 1913. Following the acquisition, SS reorganized the railway system, including by constructing a new station in Manggarai, which was inaugurated on May 1, 1918.

Designed by J. Van Gendt, the station originally had five platforms, with granite flooring from Bumiayu, Central Java, and a 500-meter-long wooden canopy. Tracks 4 and 5, measuring 300 meters in length, were initially used as stops for express trains.

In 1945, Manggarai Station witnessed a historic moment when Indonesia’s first president, Sukarno, and his entourage secretly departed Jakarta for Yogyakarta as part of a temporary relocation of the Indonesian capital amid the struggle for independence. A special train departed from behind Sukarno’s residence near Manggarai Station and passed through the station very slowly under the cover of darkness.

In 2017, Manggarai Station underwent a major renovation to transform it into Jakarta’s central railway station. The project aimed not only to improve commuter rail services but also to replace Gambir Station as one of Jakarta’s main railway stations. While the old station building was preserved, the Indonesian government constructed a new three-story structure and removed the old canopy.

As of 2026, Manggarai Station has 12 railway tracks, making it one of the stations with the largest number of tracks in Indonesia. It has various facilities, including toilets, prayer rooms, charging stations, and minimarkets operated by various brands.

Currently, the station’s first floor serves the Cikarang Loop and Soekarno-Hatta lines, while the third floor serves the Bogor Line, with the second floor functioning as a concourse. As of 2026, construction of long-distance railway facilities is still underway, with platforms for long-distance trains being built on the third floor.