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 manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS