Most travelers are still undecided about what kind of transportation to use at the Mid-Autumn Festival in light of a possible work stoppage by railroad workers.
In the past, passengers used to queue at the nation's major railway stations in order to book tickets to travel home for a reunion with their family members on the traditional Chinese holiday.
"I dare not book a train ticket at this point," said Chuang Pei-fang (
The Taiwan Railway Labor Union is mulling an industrial action on the Mid-Autumn Festival on Thusday, Sept. 11, to express its discontent over the government's proposed privatization of the TRA, as well as other policies regarding the railway agency's finances and employee welfare.
The union said it will wait for the government's response to their requests until Wednesday, or they will convene a members' conference during the holiday.
As this paper went to press yesterday, bookings for train tickets totaled 15,000 seats on Sept. 11, and bookings for Sept. 10 were over 20,000 seats. There are 120,000 seats available on each day, according to Lu Chieh-shen (
If the railway is paralyzed by the strike on that day, passengers can get a full refund within the next 15 days, Lu said. The Consumers' Foundation, however, is asking the TRA to offer a triple refund to compensate travelers.
While the TRA has tepid sales figures, domestic air carriers said consumers have not flocked to the airlines, as the occupancy rate for their flights during the holiday is only 35 percent so far.
"I think some passengers traveling on short-or medium-haul trips are still hoping for a settlement of the TRA dispute," said Huang Yu-lan (
Cherry Chen (
One passenger, however, showed little concern about the strike, saying he has still chosen TRA to transport him home for the holiday.
"I believe the dispute between the TRA and its union will be solved," said Yeh Tung-hsien (
Yeh's comment was echoed by a TRA employee as the reason that railway transportation should be maintained as a state run business.
"The government is aware that once the TRA is turned into a private company, some spur lines and small stations will be closed due to a lack of patronage," said Liu Chih-cheng (
The government plans to incorporate TRA by next June and complete privatization by June 2007. The plan was halted owing to TRA's debts of NT$10 billion per year, Liu said. TRA cannot afford to clean up its debt, while the government is also reluctant to pay it off, he said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last