State railway firm suffers rp 50m in losses per day
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned railway company Perumka suffered losses of Rp 50 million per day in broken train windows smashed by residents living near railway tracks which link Jakarta to other areas in Java, the president of the company said.
Perumka president Edy Haryoto said on Saturday that the losses occurred from the damage of between 50 and 100 glass windows on both executive-class and economy-class cars every day during this year's Idul Fitri holiday.
Edy, who was quoted by Antara while inspecting Perumka's service at Solo Balapan railway station in Central Java, said that glass windows for executive-class train cars cost about Rp 1 million each, while windows for economy-class cars cost Rp 500,000 each.
Edy, however, did not elaborate on the vandalism, declining to give the locations where the vandalism was occurring.
As had been reported earlier, groups of unidentified people have been pelting stones at passing trains, particularly during the night, for unknown reasons.
Edy speculated that people threw stones at the trains merely for fun.
He urged people to stop the vandalism, saying that such violent behavior only inflicted losses to the train passengers and the state.
He cited an incident which took place in Blitar, East Java, when a train passenger died after being hit by a stone which smashed through his seat window.
In order to avoid further tragedies, Edy said that Perumka had already distributed forms to passengers asking for their suggestions on how to solve the problem.
"We'll provide free train tickets plus Rp 100,000 in cash for the person who provides the best suggestion," Edy said.
The railway company had earlier announced that it had netted some Rp 35 billion from its Java ticket sales alone since Jan. 9.
Inbound
The Idul Fitri holiday, which fell on Jan. 19 and Jan. 20 this year, saw one-third of Jakarta's 10 million residents leaving the capital to celebrate the Muslim holiday with relatives in their respective hometowns.
The fourth day after the annual holiday, Sunday, saw a stream of inbound travelers with tired faces and bundles of bags and boxes flooding back into the capital through major railway stations and bus terminals.
An estimated 80,000 passengers, mainly from Bandung, Cirebon, Semarang, Purwokerto, Yogyakarta, Madiun and Surabaya, arrived at the city's eight main stations on Sunday.
Operators at the city's six major bus terminals, Pulogadung, Kampung Rambutan, Kalideres, Tanjung Priok, Lebak Bulus and Rawamangun, said the number of arrivals between 8 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. last night reached 72,000 passengers arriving aboard 1,891 buses.
"That number will grow bigger tonight," one of the operators asserted.
An operator at the Pulogadung terminal in East Jakarta, Pardjiman, predicted some 70,000 arrivals at his terminal alone by the end of the day.
"Most of the passengers, as we've seen in the past few days, will be newcomers to the capital."
"Therefore, we have to increase the number of security officers to ensure their safety here," he said.
The massive flow of private vehicles carrying Idul Fitri revelers toward the capital on toll roads also saw a significant increase.
An officer with toll road operator PT Jasa Marga said that three entrance gates on the Cikampek toll road which links the capital with cities in other parts of Java recorded 23,855 vehicles between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday.
He estimated that the figure for the entire day would be much higher than the 67,921 vehicles the previous day. (ylt)