The Consumers’ Foundation on Friday listed five items that need improvement on the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line, after it began commercial operations on Thursday.
Foundation inspectors used the MRT line during its trial period and recommended that changes be made to ticket prices, signage, station and carriage safety, baggage check-in services and fire safety, it said.
Consumers’ Foundation chairman Yu Kai-hsiung (游開雄) said ticket prices for direct and local train services are NT$160, but local train ticket prices should be reduced to between NT$100 and NT$120.
The foundation said that passengers transferring to the Taipei MRT should be given a discount so that the new line not only serves airport traffic, but encourages people who live nearby to use the MRT to commute.
Signs in Taipei Main Station to the new line are not clear enough, the foundation said, adding that electronic signs like those used in Taipei MRT stations could be installed to improve clarity.
The gap between the carriage and the platform at Airport Terminal 1 station was up to 7cm and could be dangerous, it said.
Baggage check-in services are limited to Taipei Main Station, but should be offered at more stations, the foundation said.
The foundation also urged Taoyuan Metro Corp and the Taoyuan City Government to broadcast fire safety and evacuation advice so passengers feel safe.
The Bureau of High Speed Rail said line and carriages meet all regulations, such as the gap between the carriage and platform that being no wider than 7.5cm, and that the carriages have been examined by international third parties and passed flame-retardant materials tests.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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