The Ministry of Transportation and Communications has pushed for the government’s plans to promote public transport and attract international travelers to Taiwan to be included in a special law for post-pandemic economic recovery, which was passed into law on Tuesday last week.
The ministry called for a three-year budget of NT$20 billion (US$656 million), with a focus on promoting monthly tickets in three regions of Taiwan: The first includes Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan; the second includes Taichung, Changhua County and Nantou County; and the third is for Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County.
In the plan to promote public transport, monthly tickets would separate those for commuting to school or college and those for commuting to work. The plan expects local authorities within each region to jointly issue monthly tickets for public transport. It is reported that monthly tickets for the Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan region would cost NT$1,200, while those for the other two regions would cost less than NT$1,000.
A detailed plan for the Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan region is likely to be announced at the end of this month.
It would initially include the Taipei and Taoyuan metro systems — which covers stations serving Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport — as well as buses and light rail, with the intention of adding highway and freeway buses.
Taiwan Railways trains are expected to be added after the ticket system has been initiated. Passengers with the monthly pass would then be entitled to unlimited travel on all modes of transport within the region.
It is quite reasonable for monthly tickets in the other two regions to be cheaper than NT$1,000. They should not cost more than tickets in the northern region, otherwise commuters in central and southern Taiwan could feel exploited.
In its plans for monthly tickets in Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung, the government should not only include MRT, light rail, local buses and coaches, it should also include transfer journeys via the Taiwan Railways network.
As the Kaohsiung MRT does not extend to Pingtung or Tainan, most commuters in the southern region use Taiwan Railways trains as their main mode of transport, so it is important that those trains are included in the monthly travel passes.
Although the Taiwan Railways Administration has said it would proceed as quickly as possible with the ministry’s plans, the government must pay attention to the needs of southern commuters by ensuring that Taiwan Railways services are included in the monthly tickets. It is also important that the unlimited tickets in central and southern Taiwan are cheaper than tickets in the northern region.
Myers Su is a political commentator.
Translated by Julian Clegg
They did it again. For the whole world to see: an image of a Taiwan flag crushed by an industrial press, and the horrifying warning that “it’s closer than you think.” All with the seal of authenticity that only a reputable international media outlet can give. The Economist turned what looks like a pastiche of a poster for a grim horror movie into a truth everyone can digest, accept, and use to support exactly the opinion China wants you to have: It is over and done, Taiwan is doomed. Four years after inaccurately naming Taiwan the most dangerous place on
Wherever one looks, the United States is ceding ground to China. From foreign aid to foreign trade, and from reorganizations to organizational guidance, the Trump administration has embarked on a stunning effort to hobble itself in grappling with what his own secretary of state calls “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.” The problems start at the Department of State. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that “it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power” and that the world has returned to multipolarity, with “multi-great powers in different parts of the
President William Lai (賴清德) recently attended an event in Taipei marking the end of World War II in Europe, emphasizing in his speech: “Using force to invade another country is an unjust act and will ultimately fail.” In just a few words, he captured the core values of the postwar international order and reminded us again: History is not just for reflection, but serves as a warning for the present. From a broad historical perspective, his statement carries weight. For centuries, international relations operated under the law of the jungle — where the strong dominated and the weak were constrained. That
On the eve of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) made a statement that provoked unprecedented repudiations among the European diplomats in Taipei. Chu said during a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting that what President William Lai (賴清德) has been doing to the opposition is equivalent to what Adolf Hitler did in Nazi Germany, referencing ongoing investigations into the KMT’s alleged forgery of signatures used in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party legislators. In response, the German Institute Taipei posted a statement to express its “deep disappointment and concern”
RSS