KAI adds more cars to reduce passenger backlog

KAI adds more cars to reduce passenger backlog

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned PT KAI railroad company has added
more cars, or in some instances combined two train services, in
an effort to cut a huge backlog of passengers left stranded by
disruptions to services earlier in the week.

At Jakarta's main Gambir railway station, all trains traveling
from East Java arrived approximately seven hours later than
scheduled due to delays which KAI attributed to the derailment of
a train in Purwokerto in Central Java on Tuesday.

"To reduce the number of passengers who are left stranded at
many railway stations, we will combine two train services into
one," KAI spokesman Gatot Wibowo told The Jakarta Post by
telephone from Surabaya.

The disruption occurred as millions of people were returning
from their villages back to the cities, including Jakarta, after
the long Christmas/Idul Fitri/New Year holiday this week.

Most of the holiday-makers traveled either by train or bus.

Gatot said the Argo Wilis train service from Surabaya to
Bandung left Surabaya on Wednesday morning with 10 cars, four
more than usual, accommodating passengers from the Turangga
services which had been canceled.

KAI is also reorganizing all the trains at its disposal to
minimize the amount of waiting time for passengers, he said.

While KAI has managed to clear the track near Purwokerto after
a train was derailed there on Tuesday, the accident has severely
disrupted the schedules of its train services.

Gatot said the southern line was now back to normal. "We will
do our best to reduce the delays," he added.

At the Pulogadung intercity bus station in East Jakarta, the
influx of people returning to Jakarta from their home villages
was also increasing.

Some 53,233 people disembarked at the bus station on Tuesday,
15 percent more than the total on Monday, according to station
officials.

In Bandung, a long queue of vehicles and crowds of thousands
were seen at bus terminals and the railway station, most of them
passengers from Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java who were
stopping-over en route to Jakarta.

Antara reported that many of the passengers who left the West
Java capital were women and men aged between 16 and 22 years old.

"Many of them used the stations as a transit place before they
continued their trip to Jakarta," an official said.

He added that among the crowds were apparently housemaids
returning to the capital from their respective hometowns.

Most housemaids were seen to have brought their relatives,
too, the news agency said.

"Jakarta will probably be crowded with these migrants," the
officer added.

The crowds of passengers were busy queuing and struggling to
get on and off the vehicles leaving for Jakarta in Leuwipanjang,
Kiaracondong and Kebon Kelapa bus terminals as well as in Bandung
train station.

In Purwokerto, Central Java, the peak of the returning exodus
to Jakarta is expected to occur at midnight on Thursday.

No less than 18,000 passengers thronged the Purwokerto train
station, most of them heading for Jakarta, and 4,000 others in
the Purwokerto bus terminal as of Wednesday night.

"Most of them are housemaids and workers who work in Jakarta,"
a local reporter said.

Many also failed to get train tickets and had to wait for the
Sapu Jagat train.

Purwokerto railway station's spokesman Supriadi said a total
of 21,707 passengers left the town as of 7 p.m. on Wednesday, 80
percent of them headed for Jakarta. Since Dec. 17, almost 149,000
left Purwokerto for various destinations during the festive
season.

Meanwhile over 300 passengers bound to Jakarta were stranded
at Cilegon railway station on Wednesday; most of them had been
waiting for their train since Tuesday.

Station head, Purwono, said the station had seen a drastic
increase of passengers since Tuesday, mostly students who
celebrated the New Year in several resorts near the Sunda Strait.

They spent the night along the terrace of the station under
police protection.

Purwono said the station had never provided extra trains for
the passengers during holiday seasons.

The passengers eventually were transported by an economy class
train plying the Ranskasbitung-Jakarta route later on Wednesday.

In Cirebon, West Java, Antara reported that at least 10 people
have died along the northern road of Java due to traffic
accidents during the two-week festive exodus.

"Most of the victims were killed in the accident-prone area of
the northern road stretching from Indramayu to Cirebon,"
Indramayu Police chief Supt. Setyo Wasisto said. (04/45/edt)