Number of travelers jump significantly
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.