More coaches provided as the number of travelers surge

Tantri Yuliandini The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Responding to travelers' concerns about difficulties in buying train tickets for the upcoming Idul Fitri holiday, state railway firm PT KAI said Sunday that it had added more executive coaches to the Semarang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Solo routes.

"We've read the news in the papers about how our booths have run out of tickets due to scalpers. So we have added one coach each for the Semarang, Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Solo destinations," PT KAI Greater Jakarta operational zone spokesman Ahmad Sujadi, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

He said the extra seats for Oct. 24 to Nov. 1 have been on sale since Saturday morning and that people wishing to purchase tickets should go directly to the reservation office at Gambir Station in Central Jakarta.

At least 2.5 million Jakartans are expected to leave for their home towns for the holidays, with about 730,000 of these expected to go by train.

However, tickets for a number of cities in Central and East Java provinces have sold out weeks before and many are believed to be in the hands of illegal ticket scalpers who will resell them at much higher prices.

Anticipating the surge in passengers, PT KAI has prepared 13 additional locomotives from 12 additional trains last year.

Also in its bid to improve services to its passengers, PT KAI will launch on Monday a short message service (SMS) for mobile phone users.

"Mobile phone users can access various information about train schedules and tickets by sending a short message to 3499," Ahmad said.

Information on schedules, seat availability, as well as train arrival times could be accessed through this service, he said. Passengers could also send complaints and suggestions about the services to PT KAI.

"This service will be provided by all mobile phone operators," Ahmad added.