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AKARTA: State-owned rail company PT KAI wants to make trains serving the annual exodus leading up to Idul Fitri “more humane”, saying that it will only sell tickets within the trains’ seating capacity.

Long-distance trains departing from Jakarta to other provinces in Java are usually jam-packed with commuters in the days prior to Idul Fitri. The Transportation Ministry said that the number of rail passengers reached 1.75 million in 2011.

KAI spokesman Mateta Rijalulhaq said Thursday that his company will guarantee seats for all Idul Fitri holidaymakers.

“In last year’s Idul Fitri exodus, we allowed a maximum of 150 passengers standing in the trains. This year, there will be no more passengers standing as we will only sell tickets for seated passengers,” he said, adding that his company would stop selling the tickets if they have been sold out.

The tickets for all classes of trains, according to Mateta, would include seat numbers as well as the passenger’s ID number to curb ticket scalping.

“We will deploy guards on the station platforms to verify passengers’ names. [The guards] will not allow passengers to board the trains if the names in their tickets do not match their IDs,” he added.

This year’s Idul Fitri, locally known as Lebaran, will fall on Aug. 19-20. The government has predicted that the Idul Fitri exodus will peak on Aug. 16.