For many, the inauguration of the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system was a day worth celebrating. But for Kaohsiung taxi drivers, already jolted by the high price of gasoline that could soon climb higher, the opening of the subway system was another blow that has them worried about their futures.
The Kaohsiung Red Line, which began service on March 9, passes through many key spots in the southern port city, including the train station, the high speed rail station, the airport and a key shopping district, and will certainly satisfy some of the transportation needs of Kaohsiung residents.
But their convenience could come at the expense of taxi drivers’ income.
“The impact [of the MRT] has been huge. Sometimes a taxi driver can only earn a little more than NT$1,000 per day, while before, we made an average of NT$2,000 a day,” said Ye Guo-bin, a taxi dispatcher.
He said that after deducting gasoline costs and the rental fee for the car, drivers were left with only a few hundred NT dollars for their daily wage.
“It is now so difficult to pick up fares that taxi drivers in Kaohsiung are killing themselves because of the economic pressure,” he said in a telephone interview with Central News Agency, citing one of his colleagues who committed suicide last week and two others last month.
Ye said that more than 6,000 taxis are operating in the city of about 1.5 million people and that “the competition is very fierce.”
“To maintain their wage levels, taxi drivers can do nothing but operate their cars for longer periods of time,” he said, with many of them spending nights in their vehicles.
Asked how taxi drivers could improve their situation, one taxi driver surnamed Wu (吳), who declined to give his full name, said in a telephone interview that adapting their vehicles to natural gas would help taxi drivers offset the high price of gasoline.
He also said that the situation would stabilize once MRT fares were normalized.
During the Red Line’s trial period from March 9 to April 6, all passengers were allowed to ride the metro for free and in the three months starting from April 7, passengers bearing an “I pass card” similar to the Easycard in Taipei only pay NT$12 for a one-way journey.
Normal fares on the Red Line range from NT$20 to NT$60 depending on the distance traveled.
The taxi drivers suggested another possible source of new revenue, one that may in fact be nothing more than a false hope.
“We are also looking forward to the coming of the Chinese tourists,” Ye and Wu said in unison.
Chinese tourists are currently required by law to stay with their groups and travel on tour buses around the country, leaving few opportunities to take taxis.
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