TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (PT KAI) will begin selling additional tickets for Idul Fitri homecoming beginning next week.

A total of 13,500 tickets for D day-five from Jakarta to cities across Central and East Java sold out only in two hours last month.

“The sales of additional tickets will commence on D day-60,” PT KAI Operation I Region spokesman Bambang Prayitno said on Wednesday.

Bambang said the additional tickets would amount to 18,760 for trains leaving from Jakarta and two trains from Bandung to Solo, Yogyakarta, Purwokerto and Surabaya, comprising all classes from economy to exclusive. If Idul Fitri is estimated to fall on July 17, then D day-60 will be on May 10.

Despite PT KAI’s online ticketing system, ticket scalpers are still evident in Senen Train Station and continue making a fortune selling tickets way above their original prices, drawing on all tricks possible to secure tickets through PT KAI’s website, which saw seven million visitors during its first round of ticket sales.

Bambang said online ticketing was accessible daily as tickets for a week before Idul Fitri were still available. He added many would-be passengers had cancelled their reservations, allowing scalpers to take advantage of the situation.

Bambang, however, refused to call these people scalpers. “They are only ticket jockeys,” he said, adding that this kind of people could no longer buy up ticket as the online ticketing system required the ID cards of would-be passengers.

GANGSAR PARIKESIT