Kuo Kuang Motor Transport announced yesterday that a first group of five buses catering to cyclists would depart from Taipei to Sun Moon Lake on May 1.
Company president Wu Chung-hsi (吳忠錫) said the exclusive “ibb life” (I bike bus life) buses had been converted from passenger coaches, with about half the seats pulled out to make room for bicycles.
Only 20 seats for passengers remain, with the rest of the space occupied by bicycle racks. Up to 23 bikes can be stored in the bus if luggage locker space, which can hold four bikes, is included, he said.
PHOTO: CNA
“Our buses will serve the bikes as if they were people,” he said.
Bicycles carried by the buses will be insured against damage.
The first five buses to depart for Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake are fully booked. Passengers will pay a discounted rate of NT$3,200 for return bus fare, a one-night hotel stay and two meals.
The same non-discounted package for individuals will cost NT$4,200 on weekdays and NT$5,200 on weekends. Separate group tour deals will also be available.
Wu said there would be five bike buses in service initially, but that if the response was good, the fleet could increase to 30 by the end of the year.
“In the long run, the goal is 50 buses,” he said, adding that once the service reaches a certain scale, the bus company would begin regular and backpack tours.
In related news, a low-emission public library that will enable passengers to check out books before boarding trains will be launched tomorrow, Earth Day, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) announced yesterday.
The environmentally friendly library, located in the lobby of Banciao Railway Station, will be open from 7am to 10pm year round. A Taipei MRT EasyCard is needed for admission.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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