Ministry Of Transportation: Transportation Movement For Christmas And New Year Holidays Has Decreased Drastically

Closing of the 2020 Christmas and New Year Transportation Monitoring Posts (doc. Public Relations of the Ministry of Transportation)

JAKARTA - The Minister of Transportation (Menhub) Budi Karya Sumadi reported the results of monitoring and organizing the Christmas and New Year 2020 transportation. As a result, transportation movements during the long holiday period decreased.

"This year, there has been a decrease in the number of passengers in all modes of transportation. This is systematically what we want," said Minister of Transportation Budi in his official statement, Tuesday, January 5.

He explained that the reduction in the number of passengers on the Christmas and New Year 2020 holidays was in accordance with President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) 's direction. To reduce the spike in positive cases of COVID-19, as well as the implementation of strict health protocols.

"On the one hand, there are indeed many people who do not travel and return to their villages, and we have also conveyed an appeal to the community to stay at home," he continued.

The decrease in the number of passengers also occurred in bus transportation by 59.87 percent, or 2,127,971 passengers in 2019, to 853,970 passengers in 2020. Meanwhile, for ferry transportation, the decrease in the number of passengers was 47.87 percent from 3,063,561 in 2019.

The same is true of air and rail transport. At least the two transportation services experienced a decline of 42.30 percent to 83.83 percent in the same period last year.

"The decrease in the number of passengers does not mean that the achievements of the transportation sector have decreased, but it is a form of public awareness not to travel and to maintain health protocols. We appreciate the awareness of the public, "he said.

Furthermore, the Minister of Transportation Budi said, to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 in the transportation sector, the Ministry of Transportation has followed up on the Circular from the Covid-19 Handling Task Force by imposing a number of strict rules related to health protocols such as the obligation to carry out Rapid Antigen Test and PCR Test in several destination areas .

"We have succeeded in completing a task that is not easy, where in 2020 the challenges are extraordinary. Because we are not only tasked with ensuring the safety and security of transportation, but also in the health aspect, to ensure the implementation of health protocols runs smoothly and consistently, "he concluded.