Jakarta holidaymakers trickle back slowly<\/p>\n
Tony Hotland
\nThe Jakarta Post
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
Tias, 42, dragged his luggage, some bags and a few cardboard
\nboxes, toward the front of the Senen railway station, East
\nJakarta. He had just arrived in the city after celebrating Idul
\nFitri with his parents in Tegal, Central Java.<\/p>\n
Tias was one of around 6,000 passengers arriving at the
\nstation on Thursday. One conspicuously crowded train, the
\nKertajaya train, unloaded 925 passengers.<\/p>\n
\"The situation today is still controllable. There is not yet a
\nhigh jump in returning passengers,\" said the station's deputy
\nhead, Supranoto.<\/p>\n
He added that the holidaymakers were likely to return on
\nSaturday and Sunday, since most office workers in the city would
\nresume work on Monday next week.<\/p>\n
Almost all of the arriving trains were late by one hour on
\naverage. Supranoto blamed disorderly boarding processes and the
\nheavy flow of returning passengers.<\/p>\n
However, a Matarmaja train, scheduled to arrive from Malang at
\n6:30 a.m, had not yet arrived at midday on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"The train derailed in Semarang last night (Wednesday), but
\nthere were no fatalities,\" said Zainal Abidin, spokesman of
\nstate-owned railway company PT KAI.<\/p>\n
Little more than 2,000 passengers were onboard 65 buses
\narriving at Pulo Gadung bus terminal in East Jakarta on Thursday.
\nLast year, most holidaymakers had arrived at the terminal five
\ndays to seven days after the holiday, when some 50,000 passengers
\nhad returned on almost a thousand buses.<\/p>\n
The head of the terminal, Pardjiman, said that the buses which
\nhad arrived in Jakarta would return straight away to their
\ndeparture points in a bid to accommodate the returning Jakartans.<\/p>\n
Heads of stations and terminals predicted the inflow of
\npassengers to peak three days to four days after the Idul Fitri
\ncelebrations.<\/p>\n
Although the holiday is over, people are still buying bus and
\ntrain tickets to their hometowns.<\/p>\n
The Pulo Gadung bus terminal dispatched 168 buses on Thursday,
\nwith some 5,144 passengers mostly destined for areas in Java,
\nsuch as Cirebon in West Java and Pekalongan in Central Java. As
\nmany as 4,500 passengers departed from Senen railway station<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Jakarta's main streets -- such as Jl. Sudirman, Jl.
\nGatot Subroto and Jl. MH Thamrin, all in Central Jakarta -- were
\nstill quiet a day after the holiday.<\/p>\n
Streets normally prone to traffic congestion, such as Jl.
\nFatmawati, Jl. Pondok Indah, Lebak Bulus, and Ciputat, all in
\nSouth Jakarta also enjoyed light traffic.<\/p>",
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