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peaking in Semarang on Thursday, the public relations officer of the Semarang regional office, Warsono, said the crossings that did not have security crossbars were located along Brebes and Cepu and continued up to Gundih Station in the south.

"We call on people taking holidays to be extremely cautious especially as they are unfamiliar with the train schedules," said Warsono during a coordination meeting with related institutions at the Central Java Police headquarters.

He said the number of grade crossings that did not have safety crossbars had been increasing in line with the rise in the number of new housing estates along the railway lines.

The official number is 632, but in reality Warsono said, they were more than 700 that still lacked the safety crossbars.

"The official crossbars have officials on guard, but that is not the case with the non-official ones," said Warsono, adding that the later were usually constructed by the local residents aware of the safety risks.

"So, please make sure that no trains are about to pass before crossing the tracks," he warned, assuring that all train tracks were in good condition.

For security reasons, 538 personnel from the Central Java Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) are to be deployed to secure the railway lines and stations ahead of the annual exodus before and after the Idul Fitri celebrations that fall on Sept. 21 and 22.

"We believe the trains may be prone to crime," said deputy police chief Brig. Gen. Tonny Ari Bawanto.

Accordingly, the state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina have prepared nine gas stations along the north beach route and six others along the central and southern routes.

The general manager of Pertamina's region IV retail fuel, Supriyanto D.H., said his office had anticipated an increase of 15 percent in the demand for fuel during Idul Fitri this year.

He said the total stocks of gasoline as of Sept. 1 were 187,666 kiloliters (kl), meaning that if the daily demand was between 7,000 kl and 9,000 kl, then the stock would last for 20 days. The total stock of diesel fuel was 199,000 kl, while the daily demand is expected to be between 4,000 kl and 5,000 kl he added.

Separately in Padang, West Sumatra, the director of the Transportation Ministry's Infrastructure Technique and Security desk, Hermanto Dwiatmoko, said the state-owned railway company had pledged to have all its locomotive engineers and assistants as well as railroad departure officers certified by 2010.

"Currently only 4,092 out of 17,931 of them have certificates issued by the ministry's railway directorate general," said Hermanto on Friday.

He was in the city to present 108 certificates to engineers, assistant engineers and departure officers for the PT Kereta Api's West Sumatra operational region.

He said it was mandatory for railway operators to have the certificate according to law on railways. So far, he added, locomotive engineers and assistant engineers only had brevets issued by the railway company itself.

"The brevets are no longer effective. Engineers must have certificates issued by a competent institution, which is the railway directorate general," he said.

He added that engineers with brevets needed to apply to the directorate general to receive the required certificate.