Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) could see serious traffic congestion when a bus station next to MRT Taipei City Hall Station opens in July, a city official said.
The bus station, which is located at the intersection of Keelung Road and Zhongxiao E Road, could have more than 250 buses entering or exiting the terminal during rush hour, increasing traffic on the district’s already busy streets.
Taipei City Government’s Department of Transportation Commissioner Luo Shiaw-shyan (羅孝賢) acknowledged that the opening of the bus station would cause traffic congestion in the area and Luo has proposed several measures to tackle the problem.
The department opened Lane 20, Sect 5 of Zhongxiao E Road to two-way traffic last week to ease congestion and it will adjust the route of several buses that pass the intersection of Keelung Road and Zhongxiao E Road.
Kuo Tsung-sheng (郭宗生), a division chief at the department, said the bus station will serve as a transportation hub for commuter buses running to Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Yilan.
“This bus station is smaller than the one at Taipei Main Station, with fewer buses traveling shorter distances, and so it should have less impact on the traffic,” Kuo said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chen Yu-mei (陳玉梅), however, said the city government failed to learn its lesson from when the Taipei Bus Station near Taipei Main Station was opened, as the bus station in Xinyi suffers from the same problems of a lack of space and inconvenient location.
Taipei Bus Station, located at the intersection of Chengde Road and Huayin Street, opened in August last year amid concerns about the heavy traffic congestion it created. Councilors also accused the city government of allowing the operator to make excess profits, as the bus terminal and waiting area only occupied 9.4 percent of the 24-story building, which features a shopping mall, movie theater and hotel.
The new bus station in Xinyi District is similar, with the bus terminal and waiting area occupying just 2,400 ping (7,934m²) of the 43,000 ping building. The 31-story building also features a shopping mall and hotel.
“The city government is compromising to big business again. Most of the space is not used for transportation and transit services. The same problems, including heavy traffic jams and insufficient room for passengers, will happen again,” she said.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
RSS