Peak of holiday travelers expected on Thursday
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)