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Hundreds disappointed as they fail to get on free buses
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Hundreds of people queue for free bus tickets at the Tiretonadi bus terminal in Surakarta, Central Java, on June 29. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
H
undreds of people expressed disappointment when they failed to get free bus tickets for their trips from Central Jakarta’s city of Surakarta to Jakarta.
The people, who wanted to return to Jakarta after celebrating Idul Fitri in their hometowns near Surakarta, had been queuing at the city's Tirtonadi bus terminal for the tickets since 6 a.m. on Thursday.
“The officers should had been informed us about the number of the remaining tickets so that we did not need to queue for that long. I just knew that the tickets had run out when I was in front of the ticket window,” said Suhardi, a resident of Boyolali.
The ticket window opened at 8 a.m. and after three hours the officers made an announcement that all free tickets had been distributed.
To travel from Jakarta, Suhardi said, he obtained free bus tickets for members of his family from the Jakarta administration, while the program to distribute free bus tickets to travel from Surakarta was organized by the Transportation Ministry.
The head of the Tirtonadi bus terminal, Eko Agus Susanto, said he had to organize 53 buses provided by the ministry – 28 buses for people who left their motorcycles in Jakarta and 25 for those who took them. “The number of people who did not take their vehicles was larger than the bus seat quota. So we offer an apology to them,” said Eko. (bbn)
