Holidaymakers Rely on Land Transportation

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JAKARTA, KOMPAS — About 22.8 million holidaymakers are expected to participate in the Idul Fitri exodus at the end of the fasting month this year. This is a 4.1 percent increase from 2018.Many are expected to use land transportation, with the number of motorists in the exodus expected to increase by 13.09 percent – the largest increase among many modes of transportation.

A Transportation Ministry survey shows that 10.6 million private vehicles, comprising 3.7 million cars and 6.8 million motorcycles, are to be used in this year’s exodus.

Trains are expected to have a passenger surge of 3.4 percent to about 6.4 million, while the number of bus passengers is expected to rise by 3.8 percent to 4.6 million and the number of airline passengers by 3.1 percent to 5.7 million.

Duta Bintaro, Tangerang, resident Gunawan, 39, said that he would either rent a car or hop on a bus to go to his hometown of Palembang in South Sumatra this year. He said that airline tickets are too costly these days.

The new toll road connecting Palembang and Bakauheni in Lampung was among the factors behind his decision. Previously, Gunawan and his wife and children always flew to Palembang.

“This year, the cheapest airline ticket costs Rp 1 million [US$69.17]. It means we’ll need about Rp 7 million for a round trip on airplanes. Last year, we still could buy a ticket for about Rp 400,000,” he said in Jakarta on Tuesday (21/5/2019).

Separately, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said that he predicted the number of airline passengers would not decrease despite the airline price hike.

He also said that he had asked airlines to reduce prices by up to 15 percent.

Java-bound

After a coordination meeting to finalize preparations for the 2019 Idul Fitri transportation in Jakarta, Transportation Ministry land transportation director general Budi Setiyadi said a majority of holidaymakers, about 14.6 million people, would depart from Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi. The rest would come from various other regions.

Many of these holidaymakers would go to cities around Java, including Surakarta, Semarang, Tegal, Bandung, Bogor, Cirebon, Surabaya, Madiun and Malang.

Traffic in Merak

The increased number of holidaymakers using land routes would also affect the Merak-Bakauheni crossing. It is expected that Merak Harbor would experience a 15 percent increase in the number of passengers during the peak of homebound travel five days before Idul Fitri.

The government is expected to use fares as an instrument to regulate vehicle distribution.

Under the fare system, ferry-crossing fees would be decreased during the daytime and increased during the nighttime.

The fare difference would be between 20 and 30 percent.

Budi Karya said the fare scheme was expected to be more effective than the odd-even scheme.

“I agree that the odd-even scheme will make things difficult for holidaymakers as many are not from Jakarta but from Bandung or Central Java. They may not understand the odd-even scheme,” he said after a work meeting on the 2019 Idul Fitri exodus preparations with House of Representatives Commission V.

Meanwhile, the odd-even scheme is to be implemented at the Merak and Bakauheni harbors from May 30 to June 2. The scheme would not be obligatory and not involve any penalties.

The regulation was aimed at distributing the flow of vehicles between daytime and nighttime during the exodus. It is hoped it would reduce the long queues of vehicles in Merak. (AIN/DVD/FRD/TAM/NAD/VIO/XTI/IKI/MEL/DKA/RAM)

Editor:

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