Buses, taxis adequate for city during holiday
Buses, taxis adequate for city during holiday
JAKARTA (JP): A city official said yesterday there will be
enough public buses for Jakarta residents, despite the many buses
being used for Idul Fitri intercity transportation.
The head of City Land Transportation Agency, J.P. Sepang, said
yesterday public buses used to transport people to their
hometowns during the annual Lebaran (Idul Fitri) exodus will not
affect city transport.
"Only 25 percent of the about 14,000 city public buses are
being used to backup the Idul Fitri transportation fleet which
consists of more than 7,000 buses," Sepang said, adding that the
exodus was expected to take place between Feb. 2 and Feb. 17.
Idul Fitri falls on Feb. 9 and Feb. 10.
Both PPD and Metro Mini have each provided 500 buses for city
transport, while Mayasari Bhakti and Steady Safe allocated 350
and 300 buses respectively. Bianglala and Kopaja bus operators
provided 100 buses each.
Other companies such as Giri Indah, Andalan, Himpurna, AJA
Putra, Koantas Bima, and IKPJ, have provided a total of 245
buses.
Taxis
The number of taxis operating in the capital city during Idul
Fitri will also be sufficient. Several taxi operators said that
although many taxi drivers would celebrate Idul Fitri in their
hometowns, many believed the holiday was a good time to make more
money.
"Almost of our fleet of 417 cabs will serve passengers during
the holiday as most of our drivers usually work on the holiday to
earn more money and return to their hometowns after the season is
over," said Lilik Nugroho, Royal City taxi company's deputy head
of operations.
Blue Bird's vice operations director, Ateng Aryono, said half
of the company's fleet of 1,600 cars would also be on the road on
the first day of Lebaran.
He said during Idul Fitri people might find fewer taxis
around.
Express taxi company will only operate 40 percent of its
800 cars, according to Nuh, one of the company's operations
staff.
"All drivers are still required to pay their daily rental fees
whether or not they work over the Lebaran holiday. That's
probably the reason why most of them work after spending some
time with their families," Nuh said.
A Kosti Jaya driver, Sutoto, said he would work over the
holiday because there would be more passengers needing taxis
then.
To ensure against drivers tampering with meters, taxi
operators have said they will terminate the contract of any taxi
driver caught meddling with the meter. (ste/04)