Peak of holiday travelers expected on Thursday

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto expects the number of people leaving the capital for the New Year holidays to peak on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after an unscheduled inspection trip to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Friday evening, the minister forecast that the number of travelers would increase steadily up to Thursday. He said this was because Friday marks the observance of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad and Saturday is a day off for many private companies and for state offices, while Sunday in the first day of the new year.

"The highest number of holiday-makers could leave the capital before the weekend," Haryanto said.

He said that up to Friday, the number of Christmas holiday travelers using land, water and air transportation could be managed with no problems.

"There was a significant increase in the number of air transportation passengers in the run-up to the Christmas holiday, but it is still below the available capacity of the private and state transportation companies," Haryanto said.

The minister strongly warned all operators of transportation firms, particularly the land transportation companies, to not raise fares.

"To all owners and drivers, do not ever try to raise the ticket prices, nor to carry more passengers than the capacity of your vehicles allows. We'll take stiff measures against those not heeding this warning," he said.

As usual, many bus drivers and owners have tended to raise fares by 50 percent due to the increasing demand for transportation during the holiday season.

Taxis

In many parts of Jakarta, for example, taxi drivers not taking the Christmas holiday off have been refusing to use meters, or doubling their fares, due to the shortage of cabs as their fellow drivers take off.

Based on similar experiences in years past, many people are simply paying the higher fares, rather than facing the hassle of chasing down a cab whose driver will use the meter.

And next weekend promises to bring even more passengers face to face with holiday greed, as cabbies demand huge fares of party-goers after midnight on New Year's Eve.

Commenting on this problem, City Police spokesman Lt. Col. Bambang Haryoko urged Jakartans receiving such a treatment to record the identities of the drivers, as well as the number and license plate number of the taxis and then to report to the nearest police station, or directly to the taxi company, whose driver is misbehaving.

"We all have to join hand in hand to stop such illegal mistreatment by the taxi drivers," Bambang said. (bsr)