Govt to open one-stop ticketing counters

Govt to open one-stop ticketing counters

JAKARTA (JP): The ministry of Transportation will coordinate
cooperation among transportation companies to provide one-stop
reservations for packages of various transportation services
throughout the country, a senior official says.

Director General for Land Transportation Soejono said
yesterday that such cooperation is expected to result in the
opening, later this year, of one-stop ticketing counters in major
cities in Java and Sumatra. These counters will make reservations
and provide tickets for travel packages including train, bus,
ferry and air travel.

"The one-stop service counters are expected to assist long-
distance travelers whose journeys involve the use of several
different types of transport," he said during a ceremony
launching a city check-in office of Sempati Air in Senayan,
Central Jakarta.

Soejono said that, with the operation of such counters, a
passenger from East Java, for example, would buy one ticket in
Surabaya to travel by train to Jakarta, by plane from Jakarta to
Palembang in South Sumatra and by bus from Palembang to a
destination in Sumatra.

Initially, such ticketing counters are likely to be opened in
Surabaya in East Java, Jakarta, Palembang in South Sumatra, Medan
in North Sumatra and Banda Aceh in Aceh, he told reporters after
the ceremony.

He stressed that the operation of such counters would not
cause transportation fares to be raised.

To support the one-stop service, his office has instructed
Perum Damri, a state bus operator, to establish cooperation with
domestic airlines to carry passengers from their city check-in
offices to airports.

At yesterday's ceremony, Sempati Air signed an agreement with
Perum Damri on the transportation of the airline's passengers
from its city check-in office in Senayan to the Soekarno-Hatta
Airport in the city's northwest.

Sempati currently operates three other city check-in offices
in Surabaya, Manado in North Sulawesi and Balikpapan in East
Kalimantan.

Sempati's president, Hasan M. Soedjono, said that his company
would soon be opening a new city check-in office in Mangga Dua,
North Jakarta, and another in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi.

He said his company plans to sign a further cooperation
agreement with Perum Damri next month for the transportation of
its passengers from its check-in offices in Surabaya and Manado
to local airports. (fhp)