Holiday travelers to reach 18.6m in 2000

Holiday travelers to reach 18.6m in 2000

JAKARTA (JP): The government announced on Tuesday that some
18.6 million people would leave Jakarta for their hometowns
during the upcoming Christmas and Idul Fitri holidays this year.

The predicted number is 11 percent higher than last year, when
some 16.7 million people left.

"Some 17.2 million passengers will take buses, trains or
ferries. The remaining one million and 382,000 people will use
ships and planes respectively," the Ministry of Transportation
and Communication said in a statement given to the press on
Tuesday.

The government said it would provide increased transportation
capacity during the peak days, which used to fall seven days
before and seven days after Idul Fitri.

"The government will provide 26,460 regular buses, supported
by 1,882 reserves buses, which will be able to handle 11.86
million passengers.

"The government will also prepare 238 rail coaches, expected
to move some 3.7 million passengers and 97 ferries, which will
transport 2.3 million passengers," the press statement said.

The Muslim Idul Fitri holidays fall on Dec. 27 and Dec. 28
this year, two days after Christmas.

The statement said that the government had prepared 584 ships
and 117 airplanes, with carrying capacities of 1.6 million and
302,000 passengers, respectively.

The government said it would allow transportation owners to
increase their carrying capacities during the holidays.

"The dispensation will be 10 percent for buses, 50 percent for
trains, 30 percent for ferries and 25 percent for ships.

"However, they (operators) must consider the safety of the
passengers," the statement said.

To avoid traffic jams, the government said public
transportation heading to Jakarta would only be allowed to use
roads along the northern coast of Java four days before and one
day after the Idul Fitri holidays.

In the statement, the government also said that it might
increase the bus fare during the holidays from 25 percent to 40
percent.

Meanwhile, an official of the country's sole train operator PT
Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) suggested that city residents should
depart for their hometowns early.

"The large number of passengers will cause inconvenience to
the passengers and create problems including ticket scalping,"
spokesman for the company's Jakarta operation Zainal Abidin told
The Jakarta Post.

Zainal predicted that the peak day would fall two days before
Christmas, since both Muslims and Christians would spend both
holidays in their hometowns.

"Family heads can send their families early to their
hometowns, then the heads of the families can follow later. It is
possible, since many schools are off during the fasting month of
Ramadhan," he said.

Zainal said the company was anticipating ticket scalping,
prevalent during holidays.

"For executive Argo train, we'll regulate that one person can
only reserve four tickets," he said, adding that the reservation
could be made one week before departure. (asa)