The annual ridership of the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system is expected to top 6 billion passengers today, marking a new chapter in MRT services since the system’s inception in 1996, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday.
As of Friday, the Taipei MRT system posted a ridership total of 5.99 billion passengers this year, according to the TRTC, operator of the MRT.
Expanding from one route in March 1996, the Taipei MRT system now encompasses 10 routes connecting many districts in the greater Taipei area.
To mark the new record, the TRTC will hold celebration activities at five major stations — Taipei Main, Zhongxiao Xinsheng, Zhongxiao Fuxing, Minquan W Road and Guting — at 2pm today.
A color-matching lucky draw activity will ask participants to recite the password “Celebrating 6 billion MRT passengers” before taking a colored ball from a box.
Those who guess the right color will receive a limited edition flash drive bracelet. Both the balls and bracelets are in the red, orange, blue, green and brown of the MRT lines.
All participants will receive a commemorative silicone bracelet TRTC public relations division director Leo Ling (凌啟堯) said.
The TRTC will also celebrate the milestone with a concert next week on Saturday afternoon in front of MRT Jiannan Station, with passengers wearing the bracelets enjoying unlimited free rides throughout the day, he said.
The company is seeking to complete the construction of MRT Xinyi Line by the end of this year.
The 6.4km Xinyi Line, the city’s second east-west route after the Bannan Line, is set to include seven stations: Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Dongmen, Daan Park, Daan, Xinyi Anhe, Taipei 101-World Trade Center and Elephant Mountain.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS