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View all search resultsA year has passed since the city administration closed down the operation of intercity and inter-provincial buses at West Jakarta’s Grogol terminal
year has passed since the city administration closed down the operation of intercity and inter-provincial buses at West Jakarta’s Grogol terminal. However, bus ticket agents there are still selling intercity bus tickets for the Idul Fitri exodus, locally known as mudik.
Despite being able to purchase bus tickets there, passengers are not allowed to board buses from the Grogol terminal, according to one ticket vendor there.
“We’re only allowed to pool the passengers here. Then we’ll take them to the Kalideres terminal in West Jakarta using minibuses or public minivans,” Nurohim said on Wednesday.
Nurohim and other ticket agents at the terminal sold tickets using makeshift wooden booths, after their permanent ones were dismantled by officers of the Jakarta Transportation Agency last year.
Passengers could be seen on Wednesday, three days before Idul Fitri, flocking to the ticket booths, carrying luggage and presents for the loved ones waiting for them in their hometowns.
Despite an increase in the number of passengers, Nurohim said that he still felt the effects of the terminal’s closure.
He said that he could sell 25 tickets on a regular day prior to the closure, but now he only managed to sell a maximum of 10 tickets per day ahead of Idul Fitri, when the number of passengers normally doubled.
Another vendor, Nur, said that while the number of passengers was definitely increasing, it was still relatively low compared to last year.
“We could fill three buses during last year’s mudik season. But now, we can barely fill two buses,”
she said.
She said that because people had to take another mode of transportation before actually boarding the buses, they were reluctant to buy tickets at the terminal.
“They have to take the public minivans, which become cramped with their luggage,” she said. “This is a hassle for some people.”
The hassle did not seem to deter some passengers, including Sari, who returned to her hometown of Pacitan, East Java, from the Grogol terminal.
“It’s nearer to my workplace, and I don’t find having to take a minibus first to be a hassle,” she said. “I already know all [of the ticket vendors here]. If I buy tickets at other terminals, I’m afraid that I’ll be cheated.”
Nur agreed with Sari’s statement, saying that the terminal was known as one of the safest and cleanest terminals in the city, compared to other official terminals for mudik, such as the Rawa Buaya terminal in West Jakarta and the Kalideres terminal.
“That’s why we don’t take our passengers to those terminals because they are afraid to take the buses from there,” she said. (han)
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