Travelers are jittery over possible TRA job action

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 (莊佩芳), a student at Kaohsiung's Stu-Te University yesterday. "I'll decide based on developments in the negotiations between the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA, 台鐵) and its union."

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 (鹿潔身), deputy director of TRA's transportation department.

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 (黃尤欄), a public relations official at Mandarin Airlines (華信航空), one of the two largest domestic airlines.

Cherry Chen (陳麗萍), a public relations director at Uni Airways (立榮航空), also said there has been no significant growth in the number of bookings.

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 (葉棟賢), an employee of Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) who was waiting for his train to Taichung at Taipei Train Station yesterday. "TRA is a state-run institution, and I believe its trains will be running as usual on that day because it has the responsibility to look after the public interest."

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 (劉志正), director of Planning Department at the TRA. "It would be better for the TRA to incorporate as a state-run company to serve the public."

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.