Most Idul Fitri travelers back in town
Most Idul Fitri travelers back in town
JAKARTA (JP): About one million people, who had spent Idul
Fitri holidays with families in the provinces, were back in town
yesterday.
Officials said they expected more than one million to arrive
by midnight.
Most were residents of Jakarta and its surrounding areas, who
had left various bus terminals and railway stations by 1 a.m.
yesterday
Of those 3.5 million people who visited their home towns for
Idul Fitri, are expected early this morning, on time for work.
Late yesterday 934,037 passengers got home, using 32,323
buses, said Heru Prasetyo of the city's Land Transport Control
Agency.
Those who took the train totalled 168,649 by the afternoon,
according to Supeno, another official in charge of the Idul Fitri
railway transportation.
At Soekarno-Hatta airport, Garuda Airlines alone brought in
more than 20,000 passengers on 150 flights which were mostly
full.
"We added two flights to every destination," said Rojali, a
Garuda airport employee.
From south Sumatra an estimated 50,000 passengers crossed the
Sunda Strait by ferry to land at Merak at the western end of
Java,Antara reported.
Officials said today will see fewer arrivals because yesterday
was the peak of the influx.
To make sure the inter-city buses serve today's passengers as
fast as possible, they were ordered to leave again for the
provinces not long after they unloaded passengers at terminals.
"We have told bus company representatives that the buses which
arrive at night should leave again by morning," Yusran Tanjung,
the head of the Lebak Bulus terminal in South Jakarta, told The
Jakarta Post yesterday.
Many buses leaving for rural destinations carried only 10
passengers each.
The same thing happened at Pulogadung bus terminal in East
Jakarta.
More than 40,000 passengers arrived at Pulogadung early
morning yesterday brought by 708 buses. Overall, yesterday, no
less than 75,295 passengers arrived in 1,275 buses, an official
said.
Unlike those who traveled home for Idul Fitri, returning
passengers are assured that there is no manipulation in ticket
prices as each booth now displays the official rates.
Sunarto, an official at the Kampung Rambutan terminal, said
that by yesterday evening passengers could be expected to reach
much more than Saturday's total of over 48,000.
Saturday registered 1,061.222 people arriving in Jakarta,
excluding air travelers.
The people who took taxis from the airport, terminals and
stations, were complaining because they had to pay high fees as
drivers refused to use the meter.
The drivers charged Rp 25,000 for an hour-long drive instead
of the regular Rp 10,000.
Meanwhile evening reports from the privately-owned TV
network,RCTI, reported over the weekend that there were at least
20 road accidents along the northern coastal route, which claimed
20 lives. Twenty-five other people sustained heavy and light
injuries.
Sleepy drivers and speeding were among the causes, the report
said.
From Lampung, the southernmost Sumatran province, Antara
reported yesterday that 11 have been killed and 87 others injured
in a number of accidents, which took place on Saturday. (04/anr)