Only 20 percent of commuter train passengers buy tickets

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.