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)