Indonesia, the second country in Asia to adopt railway technology, now has stations that are over 100 years old. Before gaining independence, the country was under the rule of the Dutch East Indies government. The railway network was built to meet the urgent need for transporting commodities from inland plantations to ports, with the goal of optimizing financial profits from trade activities. To reach remote areas, a hierarchy of smaller railway stops was created: station, halt, and stopplaats. While stations and halts have been extensively studied, information on stopplaats remains very limited, and many are now endangered. Therefore, this research aims (1) to reveal the operational system of stopplaats through an in-depth historical study, and (2) to identify and reveal the significance of the design principles of stopplaats architecture. This study addresses a gap in railway architecture scholarship that has traditionally focused on the monumentality of large stations by revealing the vital role of stopplaats as supporting infrastructure in rural areas. It identifies stopplaats as a distinct typology operating through on-demand mechanisms and shaped by four key principles: functional simplicity, production efficiency, non-permanent flexibility, and environmental integration. The findings demonstrate that the
Riza et al. (Sun,) studied this question.