Fewer passengers travel by train during holidays
JAKARTA (JP): Railway transportation experienced a decline in the number of passengers this Idul Fitri season but earnings rose, a railway official said Saturday.
"We projected a 10 percent increase in passengers this year but the figure turned out lower," Jakarta chief of railway company Perumka Eddy Sasongko told Antara.
He declined to specify by how much the number of passengers dropped, saying he had yet to collect complete data.
Eddy said 26,070 people had traveled by rail by Thursday, a rate lower than last year's 36,358 in the same period.
He said Senen train station was mostly quiet as there were only 906 passengers yesterday afternoon. The number of passengers only required regular trains, not the extra cars provided.
The railway company provided 10 regular railway cars and two spare cars with a capacity of 3,000 passengers.
He stressed that his office did not experience losses in spite of having fewer passengers because rate adjustments were made, resulting in an increase of revenue by 15.7 percent.
Eddy cited this year's increased revenue over the five days of the exodus reached Rp 1.5 billion (US$625,000) in comparison to last year's sales of Rp 1.2 billion ($500,000) in the same period.
He said the decrease was due to improved traffic control for homegoers' transport, offering them alternatives including car travel arranged by transport companies.
He said ticket sales reached 9,864 at 4 p.m. Saturday with 8,958 homegoers already departed while the remaining 906 awaited evening departure. The homegoers were traveling to Kutoarjo, Solo Balapan, Semarang, Surabaya and Pasar Tur.
In Bakauheni, Lampung director general of land transport Santo Budiono ordered his area's traffic unit to anticipate and handle the sudden increase of passengers returning from Sumatra to Java after Idul Fitri.
Santo noted that the harbor was quiet because the exodus to Sumatra had subsided.
He said the increases were difficult to determine because the inflow of returnees from Sumatra to Java often came in large groupings simultaneously as companies coordinate the return schedules.
Should inflows to Java remain normal and quiet, Bakauheni will experience a critical point on the last three days especially heading toward the greater Jakarta area as many of the homegoers would return at the same time, Santo said.
He said 18 ferries have been stationed at the four piers of Bakauheni and Merak, along with six speedboats from PT Marina Batam and four ships from PT Infiniti to anticipate large numbers of passengers.
Naval ships have been brought in to Panjang harbor in Bandar Lampung and the ship Utari will transport trucks until Feb. 20 .
Judging from field observations and media reports, Santo gave a favorable overview of this year's handling of the traffic flow for homegoers.
He cited good planning, commitment and coordination among various government agencies. Ministry officials observed empty buses at the harbor awaiting passengers. (01)