Perumka cancels plan to raise railway fares
BANDUNG, West Java (JP): The state-owned railway company Perumka canceled its plan to increase railway fares for executive and business class passengers at the last minute yesterday.
A spokesman for the company, Djoko Martojo, told reporters at its headquarters here yesterday that Perumka was delaying the increases in the fares, which were to go into effect yesterday, "for an as yet to be determined period of time".
"I don't know why the board of managers delayed the plan, nor do I know for how long," he said, adding that Perumka has not received any complaint about the plan from the government or any other parties.
He denied that his company had bypassed procedures by not notifying the government or the House of Representatives. He said the firm is not required to consult with them in setting fares for non-economy classes.
"The planned rises will affect only the fares for executive and business classes. According to Decree No. 3/1991 of the Minister of Transportation, Perumka has the right to raise fares of non-economy classes," he said.
Djoko refused to give further details, while Perumka's president, Anwar Suprijadi, was not available for comment. He was in Surabaya, East Java, on an official visit.
Anwar signed a decision dated Oct. 28 requiring that the new fares for executive and business class passengers, both for long and short distance services in Java, go into effect on Nov. 25.
A number of railway stations, including those in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Yogyakarta, put up public announcement posters on the new fares on Nov. 21. All passengers booking passage for departures for Nov. 25 and the following days have been paying the new fares since the announcements were posted.
Djoko said that he received the notification about the delay at 3 p.m. on Thursday.
Refunds
The chief of the Gambir railway station in Jakarta, Hadi Suseno, who said that he received the notification about the delay on Thursday as well, said that passengers have the right to receive refunds if they have paid the higher fare.
Another railway spokesman, Soeprapto, said that he had been at the Bandung station since 4 a.m. yesterday to serve passengers who wanted to get their money back.
"There were about 169 tickets sold at the new fare levels for the Parahyangan (Bandung-Jakarta) train, and there are 14 departures of Parahyangan every Friday," he said.
Both the fares for the business and executive classes of Parahyangan were to rise by Rp 2,000, meaning that Perumka will have to reimburse a total of Rp 4.73 million to passengers departing from Bandung.
"Many passengers, however, hurried on their way and just got into the railway cars," Soeprapto said.
According to the original plans, the highest rate increase of 16.66 percent would have affected the business class fare of the Mutiara Timur service linking Surabaya in East Java and Denpasar in Bali, and the Parahyangan trains linking Jakarta and Bandung, raising the ticket price from Rp 12,000 to Rp 14,000 each.
The hikes for other services varied from 1.06 percent for the Mutiara Utara train linking Jakarta and Surabaya, raising the fare from Rp 94,000 to Rp 95,000, to 13.04 percent for the Mutiara Selatan train linking Surabaya and Bandung, raising the fare from Rp 23,000 to Rp 26,000. (pet/icn)