The Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) System is expected to cut its operating losses by NT$900 million (US$27.08 million) this year, a city official said on Thursday.
Kaohsiung City Rapid Transit Department acting director Chou Teh-li (周德利) forecast that the system would likely cut overall spending this year thanks to a retrenchment plan that Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp (KRTC) implemented last year after the opening of the Red Line in March.
The MRT system consists of the Red Line, which is 28.3km long, has 23 stations and runs from Kaohsiung’s Siaogang District (小港) to Chiaotou (橋頭), Kaohsiung County, and the Orange Line, which opened last August. The Orange Line’s 15 stations span 14.4km from Sizihwan (西子灣) in western Kaohsiung to Daliao Township (大寮), Kaohsiung County.
Chou expressed concern that KRTC might encounter difficulties if operational losses continue to increase.
The Kaohsiung City Government, meanwhile, has been mulling the possibility of a plan to tackle any looming crisis and secure the system’s continued operations, he said.
KRTC General Manager Yen Pang-chieh (顏邦傑) said the company needs NT$4.5 billion to maintain its operations each year and is working hard on its peripheral businesses to help offset the system’s losses.
The KRTC said the MRT registered a loss of NT$2.2 billion last year.
Experts have estimated that the MRT needs to attract at least 400,000 passengers per day to break even and contend that it may take six to eight years for that to happen.
Lee Liang-chien (李樑堅), secretary-general of I-Shou University in Kaohsiung County, said the system’s low passenger load — an average of 110,000 passengers per day over the past year, well short of the original daily target of 200,000 passengers — was the source of the problems.
He called for stimulus measures by the city government to attempt to increase the number of passengers.
Mounting expenditure on interest repayments and phasing out equipment had also put dents in the system’s operations, he said.
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