Executive class train tickets on sale
Executive class train tickets on sale
JAKARTA (JP): Passengers wishing to board the Sembrani Executive Class train heading from Jakarta to Surabaya can now buy tickets at railway stations in Jakarta and surrounding areas (Jabotabek) as part of the state-run railway company Perumka's effort to improve services, a Perumka official says.
"The services will be effective as of April 1 and the public can order the tickets a week in advance," Eddy Sasongko said here on Saturday as quoted by Antara.
Eight railways stations will cater for passengers traveling on the Sembrani. These are Sudimara, Tanah Abang, Depok, Depok Baru, Pasar Minggu, Bekasi, Pasar Senen, each with 10 tickets, and Bogor with 12 tickets.
At the moment only Kota, Gambir and Jatinegara stations sell tickets for the executive class.
"There will be 82 reserved seats in executive class on the Sembrani train, from the total of 350 seats sold at the eight stations," said Eddy.
He said the other objective of this new sale system is to boost the sale of executive class tickets as well as to increase the number of passengers using the Sembrani train. "So far the rate of load occupancy departing from Jakarta is still poor, with the average number of executive class passengers still between 50 percent to 60 percent only."
He said normally on Saturdays and Sundays, the number of passengers using the Sembrani train slightly increases, but added that this increase was not "significant". "This is one of the reasons why we expanded the sale of executive class tickets to stations other than Kota, Gambir and Jatinegara," Eddy said.
He rejected suggestions that the Sembrani Executive Train is in the red. "The money from ticket sales is counted at our headquarters in Bandung. But no complaints of financial losses have been made so far."
Sembrani executive class tickets are sold for Rp 80,000 each. It takes about 10 hours by Sembrani from Jakarta to Surabaya.
Eddy said passengers whose destination is Semarang, Central Java, can also use the Sembrani. (bas)