Only 20 percent of commuter train passengers buy tickets

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Only 20 percent of the some 450,000 daily commuter train passengers in the Greater Jakarta area buy tickets while the rest either bribe conductors on board or do not pay at all.

Head of the Greater Jakarta division of state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), Rachmadi, said on Saturday that his company had tried everything to try to force people to buy tickets, but all to no avail.

Rachmadi admitted that the fault lay not only with the passengers who refused to buy tickets, but also with conductors for accepting bribes from passengers.

Rachmadi was speaking during a dialog with commuter train passengers from Greater Jakarta here on Saturday.

Despite the relatively low price of a ticket -- only Rp 1,500 (17.64 U.S. cents) -- many passengers still prefer to slip Rp 1,000 to the conductor.

Even with large notices in every station warning that passengers without tickets will be fined Rp 50,000 each, many are still willing to take the risk.

Rachmadi also admitted that PT KAI had found itself powerless to stop passengers from traveling on carriage roofs or vendors from hawking their wares on board trains. He argued that the company did not have enough personnel to control the situation.

Indonesian Consumers Organization (YLKI) chairperson Indah Suksmaningsih said that PT KAI's poor service would not be improved if there was no determined action from the company and the relevant government institutions.

"Don't expect to resolve the problems if the communications ministry does not care about the difficulties faced by the management of PT KAI's Greater Jakarta division," Indah was quoted by Antara as saying.

She criticized company and government policies, which only allocated 20 percent of seats for economy class passengers even though these account for up to 80 percent of the total 450,000 passengers who use commuter trains every day.