"Overall, the KRL trips on Christmas day are operating normally, with 978 KRL trips per day," PT KCI Vice President Communication Anne Purba remarked in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Quoting the tweet from Twitter handle KCI @CommuterLine, Purba informed that two KRL trips departing from Bogor were undergoing engineering operations, so the trip was only till Manggarai Station.
The two trains specifically KA 1051, on the Bogor-Jakarta Kota route, was only operating until Manggarai Station and return as KA 1052 on the Manggarai-Bogor route.
Moreover, the same is applicable for Train 1057 on the Bogor-Jakarta Kota route, with the train travel only till Manggarai Station, and return as Train 1058 on the Manggarai-Bogor route.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi pointed to the popular trend among Indonesians to travel by train to cities in Java Island to celebrate this year's Christmas and New Year holiday season.
Sumadi, however, admitted that the number of passengers dropped by up to six to eight percent over the past two days than the corresponding period in 2018.
"This downward trend is just recorded in short-distance trips, such as Jakarta-Cirebon and Jakarta-Pekalongan," he was quoted by ANTARA from the ministry's official website as saying here on Sunday.
In its place, the number of passengers for long-distance routes, including those of Jakarta-Solo and Jakarta-Yogyakarta, remains high. "We still need to look at this trend in a week," he stated.
The downward trend in train passengers undertaking short-distance trips might partly be attributed to those looking to use the Jakarta-Cikampek elevated toll road that was recently inaugurated by President Joko Widodo, he stated.
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Translator: Devi Nindy, Azis Kurmala
Editor: Gusti Nur Cahya Aryani
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
