In a bid to reduce traffic congestion around Taipei Railway Station, the Taipei Department of Transportation yesterday announced plans to adjust the duties of depots operating long-distance bus services, as well as the use of two bus stations on Zhongxiao W Road.
According to the adjustments, all bus services to or from municipalities south of Hsinchu will be run exclusively out of the Taipei Bus Station, with management rules for the station to be announced before the end of next month.
The Taipei Bus Station is a transfer station near Taipei Railway Station operated by Wan Da Tong Enterprise under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract and designed for use by people transferring from trains or the mass rapid transit (MRT) system.
In the Taipei Raiway Station area, buses to and from Keelung are to arrive at the station’s East 3 exit, while a station outside the north exits is to be for buses to and from Taoyuan, department officials said.
All peripheral bus stations — Yuanshan, Taipei City Hall, Nangang and Muzha Zoo — are to share the burden to process services operating to and from northern Taiwan municipalities, including Hsinchu, but buses that used to stop at two or more stations are only to stop at one station after the change, department Commissioner Chung Hui-yu (鍾慧諭) said.
Chung said that the department planned to move bus services to stops south of Hsinchu to the Yuanshan Bus Station, but an unsuccessful negotiation with bus companies last week forced the department to drop the idea, and the department set out plans to boost efficiency at Taipei Bus Station instead.
To alleviate traffic near Taipei Railway Station, the department plans to transfer some bus services bound for Shihlin District (士林) or New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) from the Taipei Bus Station’s seventh terminal to the Taipei West Bus Station, while keeping most services to and from New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) unchanged.
Taipei Public Transportation Office Director Chen Jung-ming (陳榮明) said that the Nangang Bus Station will be mainly in charge of processing services to and from Hualien and Taitung after its west terminal opens, with the change set for May next year.
Chen said that in the future, people arriving by MRT, Taiwan Railways Administration or high-speed rail services would be able to reach in Hualien within three hours of their arrival at the Nangang station.
He said that terminals at Nangang and Yuanshan stations would also accommodate tour bus operators.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard