With Taiwan's new bullet trains set to begin operation in October next year, the railway administration is working hard to boost its image with new services and facilities.
The Taiwan Railway Admini-stration yesterday held a press conference to promote its latest travel option -- a direct service to Hualien from the Taipei area. While in the past the trip would have taken upwards of four hours with several stops in between, the new service will reach its destination in under three hours.
The train will stop in Taipei County's Shulin Township and Panchiao, as well as Taipei main station and Shungsan before heading for Hualien. The service will be launched on March 6.
TRA director general Hsu Ta-wen (
"The TRA has 100 years of history and cannot be easily crushed, but we won't just wait to be defeated either," said Hsu, referring to competition from the Taiwan High Speed Railway Corporation.
Because the high-speed railway's bullet trains will pose the most competition for north-south travel on the western corridor, the TRA plans to capitalize on the market for travel to and around Taiwan's eastern region.
Also, Hsu said that in the future he expected the TRA to focus on short- to mid-length travel of under 200km. Hsu added that currently 71 percent of the TRA's ticket sales were from commu-ters traveling less than 50km. Twenty-four percent of ticket sales were for travel of between 50km and 200km. Only 5 percent of the TRA's patrons traveled distances of over 200km.
The TRA has invested roughly NT$900 million since 2001 in revamping 112 passenger cars. The new cars, slated to be completed by the end of this year, feature TV screens, air conditioning and wide seats. The TRA said that the new seats were 10cm wider than those of the T700 model bullet trains.
Hsu also detailed future services that would be launched by the end of the year. In April, the TRA plans to boost its eastern lines by offering routes that will significantly cut down on travel between Hualien and Taitung.
Also, by June, Hsu hopes to introduce direct service from Taipei to Kaohsiung that would take under four hours. While the bullet trains would be able to travel the same distance in roughly 90 minutes, Hsu yesterday said that the TRA's service would offer a more affordable price.
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