Additional transportation capacity from Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (台灣高鐵) and bus companies across the nation will cover any shortfall in transportation capacity on May 1, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, as it presented its contingency plan in response to the Taiwan Railway Labor Union’s plan to strike on Workers’ Day.
The work stoppage is estimated to affect transportation services for 358,000 passengers, said the ministry, which oversees the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA).
About 13,000 of the TRA’s 15,000 employees are members of the union, which on Tuesday said that, based on its survey, more than 90 percent of the its drivers would not work on Workers’ Day to protest a government plan to corporatize the agency.
Photo: CNA
TRA Director-General Du Wei (杜微) told a ministry news conference yesterday that the agency estimated it would require help in transporting 211,000 passengers on service lines in western Taiwan, 41,000 passengers across eastern Taiwan, and 106,000 for local and ancillary service lines.
The TRA estimated that the high-speed rail could help transport 90,000 passengers, while highway bus services could assist in transporting 136,000 passengers in western Taiwan, Du said.
In the east, bus operators have said they could offer 82,000 seats to assist the TRA, he said, adding that MRT and city bus lines would be used to ferry passengers in local areas serviced by ancillary lines.
Photo: CNA
A “train-like program” — in essence, buses on routes following the railway tracks bearing the same designation as the train lines — of 594 buses would provide 23,760 seats in total, Director-General of Highways Chen Wen-jui (陳文瑞) said.
The TRA is still trying to convince train drivers mot to strike, Du added.
Freeway Bureau Traffic Division Director Tsai Ming-che (蔡明哲) estimated that the strike would not increase highway traffic volume and said contingency plans are in place if it does.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kuo-tsai (王國材) apologized for the inconvenience caused by the impending strike, but said he would not give up any chance to turn the situation around before Workers’ Day.
Wang said that he was “unhappy” over the TRA strike, because it is causing the agency to lose established clientele.
He urged the union to reconsider and not harm passengers’ interests.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS