Smooth passenger traffic was mostly observed yesterday on the first working day of the TPass monthly transit card program and Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said that he hoped that all turnstiles at stations would be able to scan the new cards by the end of the year.
As the program was only finalized in March, the companies only had three months to upgrade the turnstiles and TPass card users have to go through designated gates at Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) stations, the Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line and the Taichung MRT, Wang said.
The Taipei and Kaohsiung MRT systems had previous experience operating contactless turnstiles for their respective monthly passes, so all their turnstiles are accessible for TPass card users, he said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The new regional public transport card had been used for an estimated 414,000 journeys since it was launched on Saturday in northern, central and southern Taiwan, Wang said, adding that about 307,000 TPass cards had been sold so far in the three regions.
The TPass issued in Taipei can be used for travel in three other cities in northern Taiwan — Keelung, New Taipei City and Taoyuan — while the other versions cover Taichung and Miaoli, Nantou and Changhua counties in central Taiwan; and Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County in the south.
In Taichung, use of the TPass also was progressing smoothly yesterday, said the Taichung Transportation Bureau, which reported sales of 17,000 cards since presales began on June 15.
Commuter traffic was also flowing well at the TRA stations in Kaohsiung, although a few people had forgotten to activate their TPass cards and could not get though the turnstiles.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday used a TPass card to travel on the MRT from Taipei to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
She said that transportation is an important part of life, as many people have to commute to work, and she hoped the new monthly pass would help ease the financial burden.
Tsai also encouraged more people to take public transportation to reduce carbon emissions for the sake of the environment.
The central government has allocated NT$20 billion (US$642.4 million) over the next three years to subsidize projects for the implementation of regional monthly transit passes across Taiwan, Wang said.
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