Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) yesterday said the ministry is planning to revamp the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) ticketing system, with fares for the Puyuma Express service likely increasing to alleviate demand.
Since the electrified railway line between Hualien and Taitung was launched in June, there have been complaints about the difficulty booking tickets for the Puyuma Express. Taitung residents have questioned how many tickets are actually reserved for homebound passengers, while others are asking why the railway agency cannot sell tickets for unreserved seats.
Yeh said in an interview yesterday morning with radio show host Lan Shuan (蘭萱) that tickets are hard to come by because the TRA has only a limited number of Puyuma Express trains.
Moreover, since the Puyuma Express and Taroko Express use tilting trains and drivers need not reduce speed when driving through curves, the TRA does not sell unreserved seat tickets because of safety concerns.
Unlike other types of trains, train cabins cannot be added to titling trains to carry more passengers, Yeh added.
“The biggest problem is a majority of the railway sections between Hualien and Taitung have only single railway tracks, which means trains will sometimes have to stop and wait for other trains to pass first,” he said.
Yeh said that the ministry had planned to increase the train fare for the Puyuma Express after the Hualien-Taitung railway line became electrified as a way to ease the demand. However, the proposal met with strong opposition from Hualien and Taitung residents and lawmakers.
The difficulty has been compounded by the TRA’s ticketing system, which has been in use for about two decades. The system has to be reprogrammed if the fare for the Puyuma Express were to increase, he said.
Ticket prices for Puyuma Express and Tzuchiang Express trains are currently the same.
Yeh said that the ministry has a two-year plan to replace TRA’s ticketing system. Aside from adjusting the train fares, he said that charges for peak and off-peak rides should differ to encourage more people to travel at different hours of the day.
“We still need authorization from the Legislative Yuan to adopt a more flexible ticketing system,” he said.
In the short term, Yeh said that the ministry plans to reserve more seats on the Puyuma Express for passengers heading to Taitung.
The number of commuter trains between Hualien and Taitung will also be increased for passengers who cannot get express tickets to Taitung. Construction of the electrified South Link Railway (南迴鐵路), which connects Taitung and Greater Kaohsiung, is scheduled to begin at the end of this year, he said.
“In the long run, we need to make the entire railway line between Hualien and Taitung a double-track system,” he said.
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