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Bureau skeptical of THSRC's plans

The Bureau of High Speed Rail under the Ministry of Transporta-tion and Communications confirmed yesterday that it had been informed of the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp's (THSRC) plans to increase the frequency of trains at the end of this month.

The THSRC hopes to increase train frequency from 19 per day to 25 per day in each direction. Of the six additional train runs, four of them would only run between Taipei and Taichung.

The THSRC also revealed plans to better serve customers in the south, in which some trains will not stop in Taoyuan and Hsinchu but will make stops at every station south of Hsinchu.

Pang Chia-hua (龐家驊), the bureau's director general, said yesterday the bureau was scheduled to approve the plans soon. The company must announce the plans' approval at least seven days prior to opening up ticket sales for the new schedule.

Should everything proceed as expected, tickets for the additional trains will be available for purchase on March 26.

While presenting the company's plan, Pang criticized many aspects.

For example, the THSRC had chosen to outsource the management of advertising space to a contractor, which ruled out non-commercial advertisements.

In addition, Pang criticized the THSRC's ticket sale plans. The company is setting up 60 phone lines for customers to purchase tickets from an employee instead of from the automated system. This has limited the number of orders they can handle, he said.

Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒) said that the ministry planned to allow the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) to operate the Airport MRT System.

The ministry decided to take back the right to operate after it rejected the original contractor's request to extend the expiration date of the contract.

"The operation of the Airport MRT Line is similar to a branch line in the TRA system," he said.
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