Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) yesterday panned the Taiwan High Speed Rail Co (THSRC) over the reduced number of discounted tickets available for college students during the Nov. 29 election weekend, asking if it was a politically motivated effort to block young students from returning home to vote.
“I have received many complaints from young students about the number of college discount tickets around Nov. 29,” Kuan told a news conference at the legislature. “This is no different from penalizing those college students who would like to return to their hometowns and cast their votes.”
Kuan said that in a democracy, increasing voter turnout is a positive thing, and young students should be encouraged to voice their opinions on public issues through voting.
“It is therefore the responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to come up with a set of measures to make it easier for people to go home and vote,” Kuan said.
Greater Kaohsiung resident Lin Chia-yi (林佳儀), who is a student at National Cheng Chi University in Taipei, agreed.
“The high speed rail fare from Taipei to Kaohsiung, costing NT$2,140, is about one-third of an ordinary college student’s monthly budget. Therefore, most students would rather not go home to vote in order to save money,” Lin said.
Another student from the same school, Chen Si-yin (陳思吟), who is from Hualien, and National Taiwan University student Lin Wei-chiang (林偉強), who is from Greater Taichung, complained that additional regular train services have not been made available around the time of the election, making it very difficult for them to go home to vote.
THSRC executive director Cheng Kuang-yuan (鄭光遠) told the news conference that the company did not have a political agenda, and that fare decisions were made on purely business concerns.
However, the company would be willing to discuss all options, Cheng said.
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