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Holiday traffic plans unveiled

Toll booths on all freeways will stop collecting fees between 12am and 7am on May 28 and May 31 as part of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ (MOTC) plans to ease traffic congestion during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

Traditionally, the Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. This year, the festival falls on May 28, which is a Thursday. Government organizations, schools, and banks will be closed on Friday, May 29, as well, which makes the festival a four-day holiday.

Kang Jhy-fu (康志福), deputy director of the traffic management department at the National Freeway Bureau, said the bureau has estimated that approximately 2.1 million cars will hit the freeways on May 28, which will likely be the largest volume of traffic during the holiday. Kang said the public may choose to head back to work either on May 30 or May 31, which would spread the returning traffic over two days.

Meter controls on feeder roads will also be activated to regulate the number of vehicles entering freeways. Meanwhile, shoulder roads from Neili (內壢) to Jhungli (中壢) on both southbound and northbound lanes of the National Sun Yat-Sen Freeway will be opened for traffic between 7am and 7pm. The southbound lanes between Dasi (大溪) and Longtan (龍潭) on the Formosa Freeway will also be opened to traffic.

Both the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) started pre-sales for holiday tickets last week. As of Wednesday, tickets for TRA express trains heading to Hualien or Taitung between 2pm on May 27 and 12pm on May 28 had all been sold. Seats on express trains leaving after 4pm on May 27 to Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as on those returning on May 31, have all been sold out.

The Civil Aviation Administration said airlines will provide 132,000 seats to facilitate those wishing to travel during the holidays.
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