Number of travelers jump significantly
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The number of travelers jumped significantly at Lebak Bulus and Kampung Rambutan bus terminals, as well as at Senen railway station on Thursday, three days ahead of Idul Fitri.
Antara reported that as of noon on Thursday, Lebak Bulus terminal saw 106 buses departing with 4,172 passengers. Thursday's departures could surpass the number on Wednesday when 239 buses departed with 8,753 passengers.
On normal days, approximately 95 buses depart from the terminal with about 2,000 passengers.
In Kampung Rambutan, passengers jumped to about 22,000 with 694 buses departing over the last two days. Normally 400 buses depart the terminal daily with about 9,000 passengers.
But Pulo Gadung had not experienced any significant increase in passengers. As of Thursday noon it only saw the departure of 86 buses with 3,612 travelers. The day before, 14,692 passengers departed on 341 buses, 50 percent fewer passengers than last year's record of 29,938 on 546 buses three days ahead of Idul Fitri.
Huge numbers of passengers were seen in all the three bus terminals, waiting for buses to take them to their destinations.
They did not seem to mind the exorbitant increase in ticket prices. Each time a bus entered the terminal, people quickly scrambled for a seat.
The head of Pulo Gadung terminal, Nadias Sjam, told The Jakarta Post that the buses would be held up by heavy traffic congestion along the road from Jakarta to Cirebon in West Java.
A driver told the Post on Thursday in Losari, Indramayu that it took him more than one hour to travel one kilometer. "The traffic flow is very slow," he said, adding that he experienced heavy traffic after exiting the toll road in Cikampek, especially several kilometers before and after Losari.
Meanwhile, at Senen railway station hundreds of would-be travelers could not be accommodated on Thursday afternoon on the Gaya Baru Malang Utara, which travels between Jakarta and Malang through the northern coastal areas of Java island.
The train departed about an hour after schedule at 3:30 p.m. with the number of passengers exceeding seats. Many of them sat on the roof and between the cars.
The queues at the station's ticket counters were also very long throughout the whole day.
In the waiting rooms, those who had tickets jumped to their feet each time a train entered the station and scrambled to get their seat in the train.
Meanwhile, Larsi, the field coordinator of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation's (YLKI) observers in Pulo Gadung terminal, told The Jakarta Post that they had received 18 reports of bus fare violations on Wednesday and five similar cases on Thursday.
A would-be traveler in Pulo Gadung reported to YLKI that he was a victim of ticket fraud. The victim claimed he had booked a ticket for Sibolga, North Sumatra, at the price of Rp 160,000 two months ago from CV Makmur and on Thursday he found himself cheated by the agency which was no longer in business.
Nadias said that he had stopped the agency's operations a few months ago, but he submitted the case to the police.
Responding to the escalation of fare violations among the bus companies during the annual exodus, he said he could not identify such cases unless the passengers concerned reported their complaints to him.