Smoking is generally highly tolerated in public areas in Indonesia, even, sometimes, at places explicitly designated as non-smoking facilities like indoor shopping malls. But one place in Indonesia where smoking is rarely tolerated anymore is public transport facilities like PT KAI’s inter-city trains – a lesson that a man found out much to the inconvenience of the rest of his family.
On Friday, a couple and their toddler took the Prambanan Ekspres train to go to Solo from Kutoarjo in Central Java. But the family had only gone halfway through their journey when they were kicked off the train at Rewulu station in the Bantul district of Yogyakarta after police officers in the train caught the father smoking inside one of the train’s lavatories.
“The passenger said (his excuse was) that smoking inside trains used to be allowed,” said Iwan, a security officer at Rewulu station, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
In light of this incident, PT KAI Yogyakarta Eko Budiyanto reminded the public that smoking is prohibited inside trains. According to their regulations, a passenger caught smoking is first issued a warning by officers on the train. But if the passenger is caught again, then they will be kicked off at the next stop.
“Passengers must understand that the rules state that smoking is not allowed on the train,” Eko said, as quoted by Kompas.
It’s not known if the family who was kicked off the train eventually made it to Solo, but officers at Rewulu station said that they saw the family being picked up by relatives and taken to another nearby station, presumably to buy new tickets and resume their journey to Solo.
