Aceh and in general the island of Sumatra during the colonial period of Japan and the Netherlands already had a trains, but at that time not electric trains.In the past, a trains still used coal as a substitute for fuel. The Island of Sumatra was traversed by the iron snake at a times.
The nineties generation of Aceh no longer saw the trains from the Japanese and Netherlands colonial era still exist in Aceh and even on the island of Sumatra. They could only hear the stories of from their elders people about the trains and could only see the train rails that left by the colonialists.
It was only in the early of year’s two thousand, that the central government of Indonesia discussed for the train again to the Aceh province and in the last a few years that a people in the western most province’s of Indonesia can enjoy riding the trains that used to exist in their area a times.
During the colonial period, the Aceh train crossed the entire island of Sumatra, but now it can only cross a few places because the old tracks had not been used for a long time and had become damaged.So as a time goes by, now the train rails are be being rebuilt.
The Acehnese Are Very Happy
And in the next a few years later, the trains in Aceh will be able to a cross the island of Sumatra again, as was the case in their times ago. People in Aceh on particular and they are very happy because that the train is back in their area, back in Aceh area.
And today's the trains are much different from the old trains, if previously we traveling by a train would take a lot of time even up to a week for get to a destination we want, but now,the trains will cover their journey in a short period of a time.
If now it only takes a few days for the train to arrive us at its destination, not for more days again. The current a train is an electric train that does not use coal anymore as a means of propulsion, its speed has also been getting faster than yesterday.
New Knowledge For The Acehnese Generation
In the past times the generations, after the Japanese and Netherlands colonial periods, that the generations of Acehnese only heard the stories about the existence of a train in their area, now these that generations can see and experience, first hand, that how to enjoy one of these means from that transportation.
Even with the existence of a train in Aceh now, these generations can make this a new knowledge and new experience for themselves.No longer reading in stories again, no longer just imagining but they can immediately enjoy for riding the train.
The Acehnese trains is named Cut Meutia, Cut Meutia is one of the Indonesian National heroes from among women from the Aceh. And of course there are many more Indonesian national heroes from Aceh whose names are used for place names and so on.
The influence of Cut Meutia was greatly feared by the Netherlands during that the colonial East Indies and she also died at the hands of the Netherlandscolonialists in a times.So based on that story the train that in Aceh is called Cut Meutia.
Thank You
April 2, 2023
Kind Regard
Thayeb Loh Angen
Captions for All Photos: Electric Train In North Aceh, February 22, 2023. Photo by Jamaluddin-Lodin. With the Nikon D7000 Camera, Nikon AF Nikkor 70-300mm Lens and Nikon lens 50mm. Author’s asst.: Syukri Isa Bluka Teubai.
