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lthough late July'€™s Idul Fitri holiday is still three months away, 26,000 trains seats for destinations in Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java have been sold, snatched by early birds who purchased the tickets from convenience stores, train stations and online.

'€œWe have sold 26,000 seats on 50 daily trips to cities such as Malang in East Java and Yogyakarta in Central Java, for departure one day prior to Idul Fitri. The tickets for Bandung and Cirebon [in West Java] are still available, though,'€ state railway company PT KAI'€™s Operation Region (Daop) I Jakarta representative, Agus Komarudin, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

He said the company plans to run 12 additional commercial trains for all classes to cater for holidaymakers and 10 non-commercial trains for economy classes. However, KAI has not announced the release dates for the tickets.

'€œWe will inform the public soon,'€ Agus said.

He added that non-commercial trains, which receive a 50 percent ticket subsidy from the government, were usually targeted by scalpers. Scalpers were restricted when the company began requiring ID from passengers when booking tickets, but they have since found loopholes in ticket cancellation rules.

Agus said that, this year, the company would try to anticipate the illegal practice by blocking subsidized seats that had been canceled.

Generally, tickets that have been canceled become available on the online market.

Last year, KAI applied another new regulation to discourage scalpers in the form of a more complicated ticket cancellation procedure, in which passengers only receive cash or transferable refunds 30 to 40 days after the cancellation date. Previously, ticket cancellations could be processed 30 minutes prior to departure.

Agus said the company would still try to catch scalpers by offering a reward of Rp 500,000 to people who can identify alleged scalpers.

'€œPassengers who spot a scalper just need to tell our officials. If the officials find the necessary evidence, we will give a reward [to the passenger],'€ he said.

Online ticketing, ID verification, as well as reservations through minimarket chains that cooperate with KAI to provide tickets have reportedly reduced scalping.

Agus said all passengers have equal access to tickets via the Internet. He said even the company'€™s official travel agents would not get ticket access privileges.

'€œThe agents store a deposit to be able to buy tickets for certain number of our seats, but it does not mean they have booked the seats,'€ he said.

Last year, KAI transported 2.79 million passengers, equivalent to just 16 percent of the period'€™s total number of holidaymakers, which exceeded 17 million.

Train capacity will not increase until full double-track railway lines along the southern Java line have been completed, Agus said.