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
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
The bird flu outbreak at US dairy farms keeps finding alarming new ways to surprise scientists. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. Meanwhile, media reports say that an unknown number of cows are asymptomatic. Although the risk to humans is still low, it is clear that far more work needs to be done to get a handle on the reach of the virus and how it is being transmitted. That would require the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
On April 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech at a joint meeting of the US Congress in Washington, in which he said that “China’s current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge … to the peace and stability of the international community.” Kishida emphasized Japan’s role as “the US’ closest ally.” “The international order that the US worked for generations to build is facing new challenges,” Kishida said. “I understand it is a heavy burden to carry such hopes on your shoulders,” he said. “Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder