Freeway bus companies have agreed not to hike bus fares following emergency talks with Ministry of Transportation and Communications officials on Sunday night, Acting Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday, adding that no increases would be implemented until the Lunar New Year holiday.
Wang made the statement at the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee, where lawmakers asked about a freeway bus fare increase that was scheduled to be implemented next year.
Freeway bus operators had indeed planned to adjust ticket prices, but the bus fares they proposed were all below the price caps approved by the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH), Wang said.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
“We understand that the bus operators have good reasons to adjust ticket prices, but taking into accounts various factors, the ministry asked bus operators to postpone the fare increase at least until the Lunar New Year holiday, to which they agreed,” Wang said.
Bus operators were only planning to reduce regular discounts on bus fares, but the ministry nevertheless believed the change would raise ticket prices and affect the public, Wang said.
The highway authority said that bus operators are permitted to raise ticket prices when fuel prices rise above a threshold, but operators do not normally propose fares that exceed the price caps approved by the DGH.
Bus companies usually sell tickets at various discounts, it said.
Companies including Kuo Kuang Motor Transport, UBus Co, Kamalan Bus and Capital Bus have applied for the price caps to be increased in June and September this year, but their requests were rejected by the DGH.
In October, the four bus operators instead applied to reduce fare discounts following a dramatic rise in operational costs as diesel prices hit NT$28 per liter.
Reducing the discounts would raise fares by NT$5 to NT$40, depending on the distance, the highway authority said.
Capital Bus and Kamalan Bus adjusted their prices this month, while Kuo Kuang and UBus were to raise their prices from Thursday and Saturday next week respectively.
However, crude oil prices declined at the end of last month, with diesel prices dropping to about NT$23.2 per liter, slightly easing the burden on bus companies.
Capital Bus and Kamalan Bus have announced a resumption of discounts, while Kuo Kuang and UBus have not yet reached final decisions on the matter.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai