Environmental Changes in the Semarang-Grobogan Railroad Line Area as the Result of the Change in Transportation Policy

Train is a kind of mass transportation in Indonesia which has expanded widely in the late 19th and early of 20th centuries. However, since the 1980s, this kind of transportation has not developed. Many railroad tracks were closed because train got a rival, namely road transportation. One of the non-functioning railroad line was the Semarang-Grobogan line. This paper examines environmental changes due to the closure of the railroad line. The method used was the historical method with document data sources and oral historical interview. The results showed that there had been an environmental change in the railroad. The train station which was originally a very clean city center became a densely populated and slum settlement center. In addition, selling stalls which have been established made the station not visible. This pattern occurred in all stations such as Godong, Purwodadi Kota, and Wirosari Stations. These environmental changes were not followed by environmental arrangements. Therefore, this made the land ownership status belonged to Indonesian Railway Company legally, but factually, it was occupied by the surrounding population. Based on these data, it was necessary to have a synergistic environmental management policy between the government of Grobogan Regency and Indonesian Railway Company.