Exodus continues during Idul Fitri holidays
Exodus continues during Idul Fitri holidays
JAKARTA (JP): A large number of people were forced to
celebrate Idul Fitri traveling to their hometowns due to
overcrowding at bus terminals and railway stations before the
holidays.
Thousands of people who failed to get bus or train tickets
before the holidays said they had to postpone their trips until
Tuesday or yesterday.
From morning to 2 p.m. yesterday almost 650 buses carrying
31,000 people left from 25 bus terminals in Jakarta for West,
Central and East Java.
The flow of passengers started in the morning after the Idul
Fitri prayer was over.
On Tuesday a total of 1,929 buses carrying 83,060 people left
Jakarta from the terminals.
An official at East Jakarta's Pulogadung bus terminal said
yesterday that as many as 35,662 people were taken by 686 buses
from Pulogadung to their hometowns. On Monday, 824 buses carried
43,702 passengers.
As many as 21,277 buses were deployed by the government to
transport 920,564 passengers from Feb. 13 to 19.
Records also indicated that 556,030 people left by train from
Feb. 13 to 19, while on Tuesday about 13,000 people left the city
by train from Senen station.
At Gambir station many people were still queuing to get train
tickets to Bandung and Cirebon yesterday.
The peaks
The peaks of this year's exodus fell on Friday and Sunday. On
Friday 151,944 people left the city by bus and 58,309 others by
train. On Sunday 111,187 and 66,787 people left by bus and train
respectively.
The government predicted that as many as 3.5 million people
would leave the capital for the Idul Fitri holidays this year.
This years' exodus was colored by very serious traffic
congestion. Director General of Land Transportation Soejono has
blamed drivers of private cars for the problems, especially on
Java's northern coast (Pantura) routes. He said most of motorists
lacked discipline. "Traffic flows could have been better if they
(drivers) had been disciplined."
The number of people leaving the city by public transportation
was lower than last year.
The number of people who left the city by bus from Feb. 13 to
19 was 920,564 people compared to 939,051 travelers in the same
period last year.
It was estimated that more than 1.85 million people will leave
the city by bus during this year's Idul Fitri holidays, or
210,000 more than last year.
A similar situation also happened on the trains. From Feb. 13
to 19 the trains carried only 556,030 people, fewer than the
571,822 last year.
"Yes, it is lower than last year, caused possibly by some
Jakartans being afraid to leave their houses because of the
floods. Others may have been forced to use their money to repair
the damage caused by the flood," Museno said. (yns/04)