A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City councilor yesterday criticized the traffic plan at the Taipei Bus Station for the Mid-Autumn Festival this weekend and said the city government should take the insufficient capacity inside the station seriously.
To prevent large numbers of passengers and cars crowding the station and affecting traffic in the area, the Department of Transportation opened up four temporary locations outside the station for passenger drop-offs from 12pm today until 12pm on Monday on Chengde Road and Civic Boulevard.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Chen Yu-mei (陳玉梅) said the department was exacerbating the poor design of the station with its traffic plan and requested that the contractor take responsibility for the traffic problems and the station’s lack of capacity.
PHOTO: CNA
The Taipei City Government built the station to ease traffic on Chengde Road and prevent bus companies from picking up and dropping off passengers on the street. However, the department ignored the lack of space for buses in the station and allowed the contractor to start operations, she said.
“Why did we spend money to build a new bus station if the buses are still dropping off passengers on the street?” she said during a press conference.
The station, located at the intersection of Chengde Road and Huayin Street, started operation last month. It serves as the main transportation hub for 10 bus companies running 39 routes to Ilan county and city, as well as counties south of Hsinchu.
Five other bus companies providing 10 routes to Taoyuan county and city and counties north of Taoyuan will continue to use the old bus station on Chongqing N Road.
Liu Chien-bang (劉建邦), a division chief at the department, acknowledged the lack of capacity in the station, but added that the department would seek to accommodate all the bus companies in the station and prevent dropping off passengers outside the station in future.
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