Again on train ticket scalpers

Again on train ticket scalpers

From Kompas

When I was queuing for the Argo Gede train at Gambir station with some fifty other people, right at the time the ticket office was opened several ticket scalpers started offering tickets and one of them was holding more than ten tickets.

One of them stood next to the ticket office and shouted that there were only fifty tickets left. Most of us panicked and they took advantage of the situation by selling their tickets.

When someone in the queue -- a few people away from getting his ticket -- protested, he was attacked by the ticket scalpers and forced to run away. The only security officer just looked on.

Soon the same ticket scalper "announced" again that only ten tickets were left and they blocked the line so that only a few people could get tickets. Strangely enough the ticket office was closed after the ten tickets were sold out.

With anger and disappointment the rest of us moved to another ticket office for the Parahyangan train. The situation was not too different.

The promises of the state-owned railway company (PT KAI) to eradicate ticket scalpers remain a dream to be realized, because it is no secret that the KAI's ticket officers are a part of the "ticket mafia".

FERRY LUKINTO

Surakarta, Central Java