Director-General of the Bureau of High Speed Rail Pang Chia-hua (龐家驊) yesterday expressed doubts about the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) “Dual Color Promotion” scheduled to take effect next Saturday, as the new ticket price scheme does not benefit commuters who normally travel during rush hour.
The scheme is designed to give discounts to passengers traveling during non-peak hours. On the timetable, train services provided during these hours may be marked with the colors orange or blue.
Those boarding the orange trains will be given a 35 percent discount on reserved seats in the standard car, whereas those taking the blue trains will receive a 15 percent discount.
For trains that are not marked with either color, passengers of reserved seats will be charged with original fixed ticket prices.
Passengers with unreserved seats will receive a 10 percent discount during peak hours and a 7 percent discount during non-rush hours.
Pang said that the scheme is apparently a marketing strategy that aims to attract customers at different hours of the day. However, it would probably take two to three weeks after the scheme is implemented to gauge the effectiveness of the strategy.
Pang also said that some rail passengers may feel inconvenienced when the system changes.
In particular, commuters who usually buy unreserved seats might feel that they are being ripped off, he said.
Pang added that the market mechanism would decide whether the company should continue executing such a policy.
While the company said earlier that a majority of the high speed rail’s passengers are not commuters, Pang pointed out that the company has not done a customer survey for a while.
Meanwhile, the bureau reported that an average of 830,000 passengers traveled through the high speed rail daily last month, a 13.5 percent drop compared to August.
The average occupancy rate last month was 42.4 percent.
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