The nation’s largest railway service said yesterday it is proposing to reward its customers by introducing a mileage program.
The Taiwan Railway Administration’s (TRA) spokesperson Chang Ying-huei (張應輝) said the program was part of a TRA reform on its ticketing system.
“We want to prevent scalpers from taking advantage of our online ticketing system and ‘sweepstaking’ all the tickets for long holidays, so we are considering asking people to sign in first before they can purchase tickets online,” Chang said.
The mileage program is designed to reward some of the faithful customers over the years, he said.
Chang said the TRA had planned to offer a 5 percent discount next year to those making payments online to encourage more customers to use the online ticketing system. Chang said that ticket sales generated about NT$15 billion (US$460 million) a year, while only NT$200 million came via online payment.
Meanwhile, starting next month, those ordering tickets online must pick up their tickets within two days. The daily deadline for picking up tickets will be extended to 11pm.
Currently, tickets bought online must be picked up within three days.
Stations will start selling tickets 12 days in advance of the scheduled departure date. The TRA has also announced that it will reward those who report railway ticket irregularities such as reselling tickets for a higher price. Each person will be given NT$50,000 per case.
In related news, an amendment to the Railway Law (鐵路法) adding a regulation that would impose a fine of between NT$10,000 and NT$50,000 on people who try to endanger the railway safety passed the Cabinet meeting yesterday.
The amendment also stipulated that railway corporations must shoulder the responsibility of compensation if a train is delayed and the compensation standard shall be sent to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for approval before being implemented.
It said that passengers were entitled to ask for compensation for additional spending resulting from a delay and could ask for more if they incurred other losses.
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