No more bus tickets to Sumatra available
No more bus tickets to Sumatra available
JAKARTA (JP): Bus tickets to Sumatra destinations from Feb. 8 to Feb. 25 are no longer available at Pulo Gadung and Rawamangun bus terminals.
An employee of the ANS bus company confirmed yesterday that all the tickets have been sold. "Passengers in groups had reserved the tickets. We did not sell the tickets to scalpers or brokers," she said. ANS buses ply the Jakarta-Padang, West Sumatra route.
Syafrudin, a ticket broker operating at the Rawamangun bus terminal, said that all bus tickets for economy and business classes were sold earlier this year. "People who were used to going by plane are taking executive class buses this year," he said.
Pulo Gadung and Rawamangun are the authorized terminals for buses plying the Sumatra routes.
This situation has been used by ticket brokers to offer Idul Fitri holiday revelers private vehicles for rent.
"If you really want to go to your home town, I can manage it. You can go home safely for the same fee. That's the important thing," he told a group of people who wanted to go to Padang.
The normal fee a for non-AC (economy class) bus ticket to Padang is Rp 40,000 per person.
The business class tariff is Rp 75,000 per person and Rp 100,000 for executive class.
All eight bus companies which have ticket sales counters in the two terminals, including the private bus company ALS and the state-owned bus company Damri (for Jakarta-Padang-Medan in both directions), have run out of tickets.
Bus companies plying Central and East Java routes, such as the Putra Gunung Kidul, Tunggal Jaya and Dahlia Indah, sell tickets to prospective passengers just before departure. "We don't offer a reservation service," a Putra Gunung Kidul bus company employee said.
Some bus companies which have routes to Java distribute membership cards to people who always go to their hometowns for the Idul Fitri holidays. In certain circumstances the members get privileges for loyalty.
"Membership cards are not valid in the peak weak of the Idul Fitri celebration," an employee said. "However if the members want to book all the seats on a bus it may be considered." he said.
Meanwhile, some bus companies have complained about the government's decision to raise fares by 25 percent, saying that the increase is too small.
"People should pay more for the addition of the security officer," Andi, an officer of a bus company, in the Pulo Gadung East Jakarta terminal said.
He said operational costs during the Idul Fitri will also be higher.
The director general of land transportation at the Ministry of Transportation, Soejono has warned bus companies not to increase their fares.
"We will revoke operational permits if they violate the decision," Soejono said on Tuesday.
He said that his office had frozen the operational permits of 53 bus companies for 18 months last year for increasing fares illegally.
He added that if bus crews continue to violate the rules, the government will revoke their permits for good.(04)