Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) will offer expanded services beginning on July 4, with 14 more trains per day set to commence, CEO Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) said at the company's annual shareholders meeting yesterday.
Beginning in July, service on peak travel days will be increased from 126 per day to 140, while service on off-peak days will be expanded from 114 to 128, Ou said.
One of the focal points of the shareholders meeting was the potential impact rising energy prices would have on the company’s operations.
Ou said that the increase in energy prices had affected the company as energy costs account for about 15 percent of its total costs. Nonetheless, the company remains competitive as the high-speed rail is the most energy-efficient form of transportation and still an attractive option for travelers.
The high-speed rail has yet to turn a profit since beginning operations in January last year. While revenues have improved this year, company officials said more needed to be done.
THSRC chairwoman Nita Ing (殷琪) said that revenues in the first four months of the year already reached 52 percent of last year’s total revenues.
But while year-on-year sales had improved and passenger traffic was up, the proportion of Taiwan’s population that had used the railway remained low, she said, an indication that the company needed to improve its marketing efforts to expand its customer base.
On March 31, the high-speed railway launched a promotional campaign to boost passenger volume, offering substantial discounts on weekday fares, but the benefits have been limited, Ou said.
Passenger volume had increased by 10 percent every month since the promotion began, but overall revenues had remained little changed compared with previous months, Ou said.
The company will study whether to adjust fares again after the campaign ends on June 30, he said.
Ing said that high speed railways around the world usually struggle in their first three years, weighed down by heavy interest burdens.
She said the company was currently restructuring its financing and once the process was completed — hopefully by the third quarter — THSRC’s interest costs would be lower and its balance sheet more promising.
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