The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday said that it is not considering reducing high-speed rail services to Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin stations, despite significantly lower passenger volumes than other routes.
The three stations opened in January. That month, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp launched a month-long “two for the price of one” campaign for people traveling to any of the three stations in a bid to boost passenger volumes.
However, ministry statistics showed that an average of 5,767 passengers used the three stations each month between February and last month.
Last month, when the summer vacation began, a total of 5,604 passengers used the three stations, with 1,547 passengers using THSRC Miaoli Station, 1,423 using Changhua Station and 2,634 using Yunlin Station.
The total number of passengers using the three stations last month was less than those using Chiayi Station alone, which has the lowest passenger volume among the seven high-speed rail stations that have been in service since 2007.
The Chiayi station had about 6,700 passengers last month, ministry data showed.
Despite low passenger numbers, the Bureau of High Speed Rail and the company said they do not have plans to cut services to any of the three stations.
The bureau said that it takes time to raise the number of tourists traveling to these stations, adding that the stations also have fewer business travelers compared with Taipei, Hsinchu and Taichung stations.
The company said that it plans to boost travelers to the three stations by working with travel agencies to offer tour packages.
As most of the passengers using the three stations are either going home at the end of the workweek or returning to their workplaces on Sundays, the company said that it plans to arrange additional train services to the stations on the weekends and during long holidays.
Feng Chia University Department of Transportation Technology and Management associate professor Lee Ker-tsung (李克聰) said that he was not surprised that the passenger volume at the three stations was low, adding that they were built at the behest of local governments.
“Passengers to Taichung and Changhua stations overlap, because the two stations are close to one another and the passengers have similar demands. Miaoli attracts fewer business travelers, because the county does not have an industrial park as Hsinchu does,” Lee said, adding that the ministry should offer shuttle services at Changhua and Miaoli stations.
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