TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The director for commerce for Indonesia's State railway company PT KAI, Bambang Eko Martono, said that the amount of rail passengers is set to increase by three percent during 2015 Ramadan holiday period. "Last year it peaked at 5.5 million passengers - this year's figure is expected to rise by 5.7 million," said Martono in Bandung.

Martono said that PT KAI currently plans to sell tickets for a 22-day window - 10 days prior and after Eid el-Fitr holiday, which falls on July 17 to 18 this year. "Only mid and long distance rail journey tickets will be marketed for the time being - a total of 88,676 seats per day," he said.

Currently, according to Martono, the total amount of passengers on PT KAI's regular passenger services have increased by 11 percent compared to last year, when the total amount of seats available amounted to 79,654 every day. "This increase is mainly driven by the fact that several trains - such as the Jayabaya, Kamandaka, and Malioboro Express - have added several more carriages to their fleet," he explained.

Martono explained that tickets for journeys scheduled for 10-days prior to the Eid holiday period could be purchased since April 8, 2015. In fact, several regular services have been sold out - including Taksaka services between Jakarta and Jogjakarta, as well as Bangunkarta services between Jakarta and Surabaya. "That said, executive class seats are still available," he said. "To date, the highest surge in demand could be observed on services due for Jogjakarta."

When asked about the prices of the tickets, Martono said that the majority of the prices would be set at upper ceiling that has been previously set by the government - especially since these train journeys are not subsidised by the government. "This differs to other commercial regular services, whose prices will be set somewhere between the lower and upper ceiling," said Martono.

According to Martono, a surge in demand will be most apparent seven days prior to the Eid holiday - July 10, 2015, which happens to fall on a Friday - as well as July 14, 2015, when the majority of employees begin their leave ahead of the holiday. "The peak should be expected right after office hours ends on those days," he said.

Martono said that PT KAI will strive to operate as many trains as possible - both in economy and executive configurations - to accomodate the surge in passenger numbers. "For the time being, we are releasing the schedules for regular services. The schedule for Eid services will be released on a later date," he said.

According to Martono, PT KAI is still calculating the maximum number of trains that they could deploy during the period without disrupting other regular passenger services - and that PT KAI is planning to ensure that all trains have been properly serviced and maintained prior to the beginning of the holiday. "That way, we can ensure that all of our fleet could be operated once the surge begins," he uttered.

AHMAD FIKRI