The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said it would grant this year’s Golden Way Special Contributions Award to two Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) employees, whose dedication to their work has made it impossible for them to attend Lunar New Year’s Eve feasts with their families for more than three decades.
The Golden Way Award is granted annually to transportation officials for extraordinary performance on the job.
This year’s recipients are 65-year-old Liu Ching-yao (劉慶耀), a junior officer at the TRA’s Nanzih (楠梓) Station in Kaohsiung, and 57-year-old Chen Shih-hsien (陳士賢), deputy stationmaster at the Linbian (林邊) Station in Pingtung County.
To celebrate the award, the administration made a 12-minute film documenting the two men’s day at work and included interviews with colleagues and families.
While Chen started as an employee in the administration’s food and beverage department, he later took exams and became a chief train conductor.
The train conductors, he said, were “handsome and able to give orders to others.”
Before becoming a deputy stationmaster, Chen said he was mainly in charge of the long-distance train services and was hardly ever at home.
“They said women married to railway men would only get to sleep with their husbands for half a year,” Chen said. “Say the train left today for Taipei, you wouldn’t be able to come home until the next day.”
Chen was on duty when Typhoon Morakot hit last year. The train station in Linbian was flooded after torrential rain, and Chen and his colleague had to stand on an office table on a platform while waiting to be rescued.
Knowing that Chen would not be around on Lunar New Year’s Eve, his family would accommodate him and hold the feast either before or after the event.
“Not too many shops were open on Lunar New Year’s Eve,” he said. “Sometimes, you only got to eat crackers.”
As for Liu, he has worked at the Nanzih Station for 40 years. His first job at the station was as a temporary worker and he gradually worked his way up to become part of the management team. Every day, he has to drive 40 minutes to get to work.
“I have learned to do many jobs at the Nanzih station, from cleaning to manning the ticket booth,” Liu said.
When asked if he would consider retiring after commuting to work every day for 40 years, he replied: “Passengers still need me.”
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