Senen station overwhelmed by thousands of travelers

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.