Bureau of High Speed Rail director general Pang Chia-hua (龐家驊) said yesterday that the bureau could begin imposing fines on the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) starting on Saturday if it fails to improve its problematic ticketing system by tomorrow.
THSRC is the operator of the nation's first bullet train system, and has experienced a number problems since it became operational on Jan. 5.
Pang said that the bureau had officially notified THSRC last week and informed the company that all the problems with its ticketing system must be fully addressed before it started selling full-priced tickets.
Pang added that the exact amount of the fine had yet to be determined.
The company will be offering 50 percent discounts on bullet train tickets until the end of the month for travel between Banciao (板橋) and Zuoying (左營).
On Monday, the THSRC applied with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for an examination of the newly completed section between Taipei City and Banciao, after acquiring verification from the Lloyd's Register Group.
Pang added that the bureau will meet the company sometime before the end of the month to discuss a to-do list for THSRC that is to be added onto the build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract.
Under the BOT contract, the THSRC will be in charge of the rail system's operation for 35 years before it is turned over to government control.
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
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
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