Economy train tickets sold out to Dec. 4

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Holidaymakers who want to make their Idul Fitri hometown journey from Pasar Senen railway station will have to struggle for the remaining limited seats as all tickets until Dec. 4 have been sold out.

Pasar Senen station in Central Jakarta offers seats on nine business class trains and eight economy class trains bound for cities in Central Java and East Java with a total of 11,000 seats available daily.

Business trains Fajar Utama Semarang and Senja Utama Semarang, for example, travel to Semarang for a fare of Rp 45,000 (US$5). The trains leave at 6:45 a.m. and 6:50 p.m. respectively.

Economy train Tawang Jaya travels the same route but the train fare costs only Rp 31,500 while another train, Kerta Jaya connects Pasar Senen with Surabaya Pasar Turi station with a fare of Rp 34,000.

"All tickets for business class trains until next Wednesday have been sold out. We expect Monday to Wednesday next week to be the peak in the exodus of travelers departing from this station," Pasar Senen railway station master, Sugeng Setianto, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

"On Thursday, we will sell tickets for trains departing next Thursday. Our counters will open from 5 a.m.," he added.

The situation in Pasar Senen was still quiet on Wednesday without any sign of passengers crowding the platform. But several travelers had already taken their place to anticipate Thursday's ticket sales for Dec. 4.

"All trains have carried less than 100 percent of their capacity so far," said Sugeng.

"Business trains are allowed to carry up to 125 percent of its capacity in non-seat passengers while economy trains are permitted to carry up to 150 percent."

Pasar Senen railway station caters for the middle to lower income group, while the ticket reservation center on Jl. Djuanda, Central Jakarta focuses its service on passengers from the middle to high income groups selling train tickets for business and executive classes.

State-owned train operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) expects there will be a total of 185,000 passengers departing from Jakarta while the total seating capacity of the trains is only 170,000.

The company, however, will not provide Sapujagat trains to carry excess passengers unlike in previous years.

These trains were last-minute economy class trains provided by the company to bring holidaymakers to their hometown after they were unable to get tickets on the regular and additional trains.

"We will just utilize our locomotives to their maximum capacity. Each locomotive can pull some 12 cars," PT KAI director of operations, Juda Sitepu, told reporters on Monday.

"We, however, provide 29 special Idul Fitri trains to carry the passengers. A special train will be dispatched if a regular train cannot carry all the passengers."

The company will also add the number of trips to carry more passengers.

"A train, traveling between Jakarta and Yogyakarta for example, would usually stop in Yogyakarta and return to Jakarta the following day.

"But the train can immediately return to Jakarta, allowing the train to carry more passengers," said Juda.

He also said that the company had asked the police to deploy elite Mobile Brigade officers at strategic places such as long bridges.