TRAIN LOAD FACTORS DROP 7.18 PERCENT: BPS

Jakarta, Nov 4 (ANTARA) - The Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said that the number of passengers and cargoes of train in September dropped sharply by 7.18 percent if compared with those in the previous month.

"For cargo transportation it dropped by 18.42 percent in September compared with previous month," BPS head Rusman Heriawan said here on Monday.

He said that the number of train passengers in September stood at 15.88 million or a decline of 7.18 percent from that in August. Of the number, 10.48 million or 66.01 percent were commuter passengers within Jabotabek (Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi) areas.

The BPS chief said that the number of train passengers from January to September 2008 reached 145.44 million. The number of passengers in 2008 was 11.88 percent bigger than that in 2007, which stood at 130 million.

In the meantime, the number of cargoes of train in September 2008 was recorded at 1.56 million tons. Of the total, 79.91 percent were cargoes transported by train in Sumatra.

He said that in the January-September 2008 period the volumes of train cargo transportation were recorded at 14.69 million tons or an increase of 15.01 percent compared with that in 2007 which stood at 12.78 million tons. ***2***