Jakarta (02/08) - The Directorate General of Railways (DJKA) encourages the improvement of railway transportation services subsidized using the Public Service Obligation (PSO) scheme by adjusting the dynamic passenger capacity (load factor). This was conveyed by the Director General of Railways, Risal Wasal on Tuesday 1 August 2023 in Jakarta.

Risal revealed that this rule will be applied to PSO train services that use K3 (Occupational Safety and Health) facilities with a distance of more than 100 km. "We received input that currently the enthusiasm of the community to use the PSO train service is quite high so we need to regulate its capacity so as not to reduce passenger comfort," said Risal.

Furthermore, Risal said that the implementation of this rule will begin on 1 August 2023 through adjusting the number of tickets without seats sold. "Previously, PSO trains had a load factor of up to 150%, so we encourage operators to be able to adjust the load factor to 120% through the ticketing system and socialization to the public," Risal said.

The PSO train services affected by this rule mostly come from the operating areas (DAOP) 2 Bandung and DAOP 8 Surabaya, including the Garut Commuter Line, Dhoho and the Panataran Commuter Line. After this adjustment takes effect, seatless tickets sold for PSO train services with the criteria as mentioned earlier, cannot exceed 20% of the seating capacity.

"Hopefully, with this adjustment, people can be more comfortable using train services and more people will switch to using public transportation," Risal concluded.(DA/HJA)