The addition of an extra day at the beginning of the Lunar New Year holiday — the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve — has successfully alleviated travel congestion, so the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has made the change permanent.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday visited the Freeway Bureau to see the status of traffic on the nation’s highways, and Taipei Railway Station to see travel conditions on services provided by Taiwan High Speed Railway Corp (THSRC) and the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA).
After extending the holiday by one day greatly reduced passenger transportation problems, the ministry fully embraced the measure and adopted it as a standing policy, Lin said, citing statistics from last year and this year.
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
The agency expected that pre-holiday passenger numbers would peak between Tuesday afternoon and today, Lunar New Year’s Eve, Transport Division head Chang Chin-sung (張錦松) said yesterday.
People are expected to return to the regions where they work between Sunday and Tuesday next week, Chang said, adding that the TRA expects to transport 600,000 passengers per day, with possibly 700,000 on Sunday.
The TRA has mobilized an additional 288 trains over the holiday, as well as discounted express trains that depart from Taipei, Yilan and Hualien stations, Chang said.
The eastern line would feature midnight trains and trains with only registered seating, Chang added.
The TRA expects a 20 percent increase in its traveler conveyance efficiency on the eastern line and the South Link Line, Chang said.
Yesterday, THSRC transported about 140,000 people and the company expects to transport 200,000 people on Saturday, THSRC senior manager Chen Yi-hua (陳益華) said, adding that the company is providing 1.79 million seats throughout the holiday, an increase of 29.4 percent.
From Monday to Tuesday next week, THSRC trains are only to offer registered seating, with all eating and drinking prohibited, Chen said.
The train cars are being disinfected more frequently, he added.
Meanwhile, the Freeway Bureau said that there was slight congestion for southbound traffic on the Suhua Highway from 6am to 7am yesterday, although traffic on the freeway was smooth the rest of the day.
The bureau also opened road shoulders to larger vehicles from 5am yesterday.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS