Holders of Kaohsiung MRT Cards or Taiwan Smart Cards will be able to use their cards on the Taipei MRT by the end of this year, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯), director-general of the Department of Railways and Highways, said Taipei Rapid Transit would install multiple card readers at 104 ticket gates at its stations, with the project scheduled for completion at the end of the year.
The department said the multiple card readers would be installed on top of the existing ticket gates, which can only read the Taipei EasyCard.
The EasyCard is used on the Taipei MRT system and on public buses in the city, while the Taiwan Smart Card is used on public buses that run in Taoyuan and Chiayi.
The Kaohsiung MRT card is used to access the Kaohsiung MRT system as well as the public bus system in Greater Kaohsiung.
The EasyCard is the largest card system in the nation, with 23 million cards in circulation.
The Taiwan Smart Card and the Kaohsiung MRT card have 1.6 million and 2.1 million cards in circulation respectively.
The installation of the multiple card readers is part of the ministry’s three-year plan to improve the public transportation system.
The ministry’s plans include providing subsidies to public bus and city bus operators to help them install card readers on the buses.
The plan does not include freeway bus operators.
As of May this year, 778 public bus routes around the nation have been equipped with multiple card readers.
Statistics from the department showed that as of July this year, there were 1.7 million records of cardholders using their cards in regions other than their original service area.
The number rose from 11,934 times in May and 586,171 in June to 1,150,466 in July.
Chen said the department was still reviewing a plan submitted by the Kaohsiung MRT system to install multiple-card reading ticket gates.
The department said it should meet its goal of using only one card for travel on public buses, MRT systems and select Taiwan Railway Administration routes by the end of next year.
It said there were still a number of issues that have to be resolved before the high-speed rail could be added to the plan.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of