Senen station overwhelmed by thousands of travelers

Rendi A. Witular, and Leo Wahyudi S., The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Thousands of would-be travelers queued early on Wednesday in Senen railway station to get train tickets to the provinces of Yogyakarta, Central Java and East Java.

A number of would-be travelers in the station said that they had been waiting for tickets since 2:00 a.m. on Wednesday. By 5:30 a.m. that day about 5,000 travelers had already left the stations for their respective destinations throughout the world's most densely-populated island.

Antara reported that the southern routes, through southern Java, were served by Fajar Utama, which left for Yogyakarta at 6:05 a.m., Tirtonadi, which left for Solobalapan at 8:05 a.m., Kutajaya to Purworejo at 8:10 a.m., Empujaya to Kroya at 9:18 a.m., and Gaya Baru Malang Selatan to Gubeng at 12 midday.

In contrast to the southern routes, ticket counters for northern routes through northern coastal areas, were quieter on Wednesday.

Ticket counters at Gambir railway station were even quieter as most travelers that day seemed to have already bought their tickets several days ago.

Meanwhile, volunteers from political parties and social organizations, including the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P), the National Mandate Party (PAN), Golkar, and the Youth Red Cross, worked to help secure the annual exodus from the Gambir and Senen railway stations.

About 2.5 million people will leave Jakarta for their respective hometowns in Indonesia during Idul Fitri celebrations.

The peak flow of human traffic from the railway stations and from bus terminals will occur on Thursday.

Correspondingly, hundreds of buses departed for destinations in Central and East Java from the Pulo Gadung bus terminal, where passengers still complained about illegal ticket prices, illegal brokers, security and public order.

Field officers from YLKI (the Indonesian Consumer Foundation), who were on duty to monitor the station, were threatened by passenger brokers at the bus station on Wednesday.

A passenger, who just arrived at the station and asked for anonymity, was forced by several bus brokers from Tetap Jaya bus company to board a bus which is not bound for his destination.

Seeing the dispute, Nunung, a YLKI staff member attempted to intervene and brought the dispute to the City's Land Transportation Agency (DLLAJ) office.

In front of the DLLAJ officers the broker admitted to being rude and forceful, and apologized. Afterwards, however, the brokers came to the YLKI post and threatened to rape and kill the staff.

Several passengers bound to Tegal and Purwokerto also complained.

"I had just got off the city public bus when suddenly a broker grasped my arm and dragged me to his bus which was not traveling to my destination. When I refused he just got angry and said dirty words to me", said Narti, 26, a passenger headed towards Tegal.

The confessions of Narti and other passengers were different to statements made by the city councillors after making an impromptu inspection of the station on Tuesday. "The security in this station is quite good, as it seems so orderly managed", said Ali Imran, the deputy chairman of the Council's Commission D.