The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) and the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday they will continue to offer special train services for volunteers heading to areas devastated by Typhoon Morakot.
The THSRC said it had reserved an average of 11,095 train seats per day for volunteers from Aug.12 to yesterday. The seats are free of charge.
By Thursday, approximately 56,000 passengers had utilized the special service. Of the total, 45 percent were volunteers from non-government social welfare groups.
Thirty-one percent were from religious charity groups. Those from government organizations accounted for about 18 percent of the users, while 6 percent were from schools.
The THSRC said that the special service ended yesterday. However, as reconstruction is expected to continue for a long time, the company said it would continue to take requests from volunteer groups for special rates.
Meanwhile, the TRA said it would continue to accept applications from government and non-government groups until Sept. 20 to board trains for free to engage in volunteer work in the disaster zones. As of Thursday, a total of 12,312 passengers had taken advantage of the service.
RSS