The central government'€™s decision to increase the price of subsidized gasoline on Tuesday led to public transportation workers across the country staging strikes on Wednesday, leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

In Semarang regency, Central Java, thousands of public transportation crews parked their vehicles in garages, bus terminals and other bus stops across the region; some were even seen forcing other vehicles to stop operating.

To deal with the strike, the regency administration in cooperation with the local police deployed a number of trucks belonging to the military, police and Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) to transport stranded passengers.

'€œThank God we have military trucks operating to transport us. Only the military, police and government vehicles have the guts to transport passengers,'€ Ahmadi, a passenger, said.

Passengers, including students, who could not be transported by these vehicles used motor taxi services, or had their parents drop them off at their respective workplaces or schools.

Chairman of the Semarang branch of the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda), Hadi Mustofa, said the strike was ordered from the organization'€™s central board of executives.

'€œDuring the meeting with the transportation agency this morning, we proposed an increase of 30 percent of the transportation fare. Hopefully the people will accept the increase,'€ said Hadi on the sidelines of the strike in Tuntang.

He said with a 30 percent increase, the fare would increase by only Rp 1,000 per route from the previous fare.

In Pekalongan, Central Java, hundreds of public transportation workers serving the Pekalongan'€“Wiradesa'€“Kajen route staged a mass strike, demanding that the regency administration make a decision on the increase of the city'€™s transportation fare.

'€œUnless the fare is increased, it'€™s hard for us to continue operation,'€ one of the protesting city transportation drivers, Kuwandi, said.

To help transport passengers, the local Transportation Communication and Informatics Agency deployed a number of buses and trucks.

The same scene was evident in other regions including in Banyumas regency and Surakarta city, Central Java.

In Surakarta the strike started as early as 5:30 a.m. local time. Those on strike included public transportation workers serving short routes such as to Sragen, Sukoharjo, Boyolali, Klaten, Karanganyar and Wonogiri as well as city transportation services on the Kartasura'€“Adi Soemarmo Airport'€“Jl Slamet Riyadi'€“Palur route and the Kartasura'€“Solo'€“Balapan Station'€“Palur route.

Local Organda chairman Joko Suprapto said that no less than 1,600 minibuses joined the strike on Wednesday.

In Padang, West Sumatra, the local Education Agency decided to send students home on Wednesday in anticipation of a mass public transportation strike.

'€œSchools are allowed to send their students home early to avoid the impacts of [public transportation] rallies,'€ Padang Education Agency head Indang Dewata said, Wednesday.

Although schools typically end at 3 p.m., most schools sent their students home at 8 a.m., others at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

In South Sumatra, the provincial Transportation Communication and Informatics Agency has proposed a 30 percent increase in the public transportation fee.

'€” Kusumasari Ayuningtyas in Surakarta, Agus Maryono in Banyumas, Syofiardi Bachyul Jb in Padang, Ansyor Idrus in Palembang and Slamet Susanto in Yogyakarta contributed to this story

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