Millions of travelers are on the move as the Lunar New Year holidays start, transportation officials said yesterday.
By lunchtime today, thousands of drivers will have taken to the highways and thousands more travelers to the rail system. Trans-portation officials predicted that significant traffic delays will occur from today, the first of the eight-day Lunar New Year vacation.
"To ease the traffic burden during what are traditionally the busiest days of the year, we have implemented traffic controls. We have also increased the number of trains and flights to meet passenger demand," Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) said yesterday.
The ministry is predicting that 490,000 passengers will board trains today alone.
"Tickets are sold out for the peak period from Feb. 5 to Feb. 7 [tomorrow], when people rush home before family reunion dinners are held on Tuesday. Tickets for Feb. 12, Feb. 13, and Feb. 14 are also sold out as passengers return to work. A total of 600,000 tickets has already been booked for these two peak periods," Taiwan Railway Administration director-general Hsu Ta-wen (
To cope with the surge in demand, the railway authority has added an additional 528 services to its schedule. Hsu estimated that the railway system can carry as many as 590,000 passengers in a day during peak periods.
Meanwhile, 200,000 passengers are expected to fly from Taiwan to outlying islands from today. Another 880 flights have been added to schedules from last Thursday to Feb. 16, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said.
"In addition to the 5,767 ordinary flights between Feb. 3 and Feb. 16, we have added 880 flights. Since Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu rely heavily on air transportation, we have allotted most of our planes to these routes," CAA director-general Billy Chang (張國政) said.
According to Chang, the CAA this year is providing a capacity of 230,000 passengers between Taiwan and its outlying territories, a 33-percent increase on last year.
Transportation officials predict that intercity air routes will be less congested.
"Since most people take to the highways and rail, the airports are only slightly busier than usual," said Lin Chih-ming (
Heavy traffic on the country's highways will also start from today, transportation officials said. The ministry has launched no-toll measures to maintain traffic flow during peak periods.
"I am confident that people departing from Taipei can arrive in Kaohsiung in six hours," Lin Ling-san said.
The end of the holidays will be a busier time to drive, transportation officials said.
"We hope drivers returning north can avoid peak days like next [Friday and Saturday]," Lin said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique