The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday unveiled its plans to facilitate transportation during the Lunar New Year holiday.
The plan covers traffic between Jan. 23 and Feb. 2. The Taiwan Area Freeway Transportation Bureau said it would only implement its high occupancy vehicle controls — where each car must have at least three occupants — on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31. The policy will apply from 9am to 5pm between Neili (內壢) and Kaohsiung on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) and between Dashi (大溪) and Jiouju (九如) on the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3).
On Jan. 28, Jan. 29 and Jan. 30, the northbound interchanges in Tainan, Puyen (埔鹽) and Pingjen (平鎮) on Freeway No. 1, as well as the one in Longtan (龍潭) on Freeway No. 3, will be closed from 12am to 12pm.
The Wangtien (王田) interchange on Freeway No. 1 and Mingjien (民間) interchange on Freeway No. 3 will also be closed.
Both the southbound and northbound lanes of the Toucheng (頭城) Interchange will limit access for large passenger-buses from Jan. 28 to Jan. 31 between 12pm and 7pm.
From Jan. 24 to Feb. 1, the toll-free hours of freeway Nos. 1, 3 and 5 will be from 12am to 7pm, although the bureau will have additional toll-free hours on certain days or at certain toll stations.
The Taiwan Railway Administration has increased the number of trains to 443, including 237 eastbound trains. During peak hours, it could also increase the number of commuter trains. Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp has also increased the number of trains to 308 for the holidays.
Domestic airlines said there would be 757 return flights to Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu between Jan. 21 and Feb. 3.
Both Taiwanese and Chinese airlines will increase cross-strait charter flights.
Civil Aviation Administration director general Lee Lung-wen (李龍文) said yesterday that its Chinese counterpart had capped flights to Shanghai because of the limited time slots available at Pudong Airport. Taiwanese airlines must cut their flights to Shanghai from 36 to 20. Some passengers who bought tickets to Shanghai may be forced to land in Hangzhou instead, which is about a 2.5 hour drive to Shanghai.
Close to 10,000 passengers may be affected by the decision because all five domestic airlines started selling tickets last month.
CLOSURES: Several forest recreation areas have been closed as a precaution, while some ferry and flight services have been suspended or rescheduled A land warning for Tropical Storm Danas was issued last night at 8:30pm, as the storm’s outer bands began bringing heavy rain to southeastern regions, including Hualien and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島), according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). As of 9:15pm, the storm was approximately 330km west-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, moving north-northeast at 10-20kph, the CWA reported. A sea warning had already been issued at 8:30am yesterday. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 83kph, with gusts of up to 108kph, according to the CWA. As of 9:30pm last night, Kaohsiung, Tainan,
POWERFUL DETERRENT: Precision fire and dispersed deployment of units would allow Taiwanese artillery to inflict heavy casualties in an invasion, a researcher said The nation’s military has boosted its self-defense capability with the establishment of a new company equipped with the US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS). The company, part of the army’s 58th Artillery Command, is Taiwan’s first HIMARS unit. Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄), who presided over the formation ceremony in Taichung on Friday, called the unit a significant addition to the nation’s defensive strength, saying it would help deter adversaries from starting a war. The unit is made up of top-performing soldiers who received training in the US, according to the Ministry of National Defense. The HIMARS can be equipped with
STRONG WINDS: Without the Central Mountain Range as a shield, people should be ready for high-speed winds, CWA weather forecaster Liu Yu-chi said Danas was yesterday upgraded to a typhoon and could grow stronger as it moves closely along the nation’s west coastline, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Hsinchu and Chiayi cities, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Hsinchu, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Nantou, Chiayi, Penghu and Pingtung counties have canceled work and school today. Work and school in Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Yilan, Taitung, Hualien, Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties would continue as usual, although offices and schools would be closed in Taoyuan’s Luju (蘆竹), Dayuan (大園), Guangyin (觀音) and Sinwu (新屋) districts. As of 5pm yesterday, the typhoon’s
UNILATERAL: The move from China’s aviation authority comes despite a previous 2015 agreement that any changes to flight paths would be done by consensus The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday slammed Beijing for arbitrarily opening the M503 flight route’s W121 connecting path, saying that such unilateral conduct disrespected the consensus between both sides and could destabilize the Taiwan Strait and the wider region. The condemnation came after the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) earlier yesterday announced it “has activated the W121 connecting path of the M503 flight route,” meaning that west-to-east flights are now permitted along the path. The newly activated west-to-east route is intended to “alleviate the pressure caused by the increase of flights,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency quoted China’s Taiwan Affairs Office
RSS