The demand for tickets for the Puyuma Express operating between Taipei and Taitung has reached such a peak that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is considering offering discounts to passengers boarding the Tzuchiang-class trains to Hualien or Taitung during off-peak hours to ease demand, Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuan-shih (葉匡時) said yesterday.
Yeh made the comments at a press conference encouraging people to travel to Hualien and Taitung using the public transport system.
Aside from the Puyuma Express and the Taroko Express, which are tilting trains, travelers can also board diesel-powered or push-pull Tzuchiang-class express trains if they want to travel to Taitung.
The demand for Puyuma Express trains rose dramatically after the launch of an electrified railway line between Hualien and Taitung, as the service has reduced the travel time from Taipei to Taitung from 4.5 hours to 3.5 hours.
However, many travelers have complained that it is difficult to get tickets for the Puyuma Express after the railway operator started a new train schedule yesterday and placed all train cabins in use, particularly for trains operating during holidays.
In response, Yeh said that two-thirds of the seats on the Puyuma Express are reserved for travelers to Taitung, whereas the remaining seats are for travelers to Hualien. To ease the demand, he said, the ministry is considering appropriating more seats for passengers to Taitung.
The Taiwan Railways Administration has already lowered the ticket prices for the diesel-powered Tzuchiang-class express train by about 3 percent, but Yeh said that it might be too small an incentive to attract buyers.
He said that the administration has proposed different fares for trains operating during peak and off-peak hours, and such a new ticketing scheme could be introduced in February next year when the railway operator is scheduled to present a new train schedule.
He added that the administration would spend the following two to three weeks gathering data on passenger volumes to determine an off-peak ticket discount.
Commenting on presales of Puyuma Express tickets in the next two weeks, Yeh said that the sales figures appear to have exceeded the ministry’s expectations and it suspected that scalpers had launched a massive buyout of tickets to resell them at higher prices.
“The fundamental solution to meet the rising demand for the East Coast Transport System is to make the entire Hualien-Taitung railway route a double-track system. It is also necessary to construct a straight railway route connecting Taipei and Yilan. Both Puyuma and Taroko Express trains are tilting trains and do not have to lower their speed when they drive through curves. If there is a straight railway route, Tzuchiang-class express trains can operate just as fast as the tilting trains,” he said.
The railways administration said that off-peak discounts would only apply to diesel-powered and push-pull Tzuchiang-class trains.
Off-peak hours may refer to certain hours during the day or certain weekdays, it said, adding that the proposal would be submitted to the ministry for further review.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS