The grand opening of the Taipei City Hall Bus Station will be delayed until next month, the Taipei City Government said, acknowledging that traffic would pose a challenges in the area after the station opens.
The bus station, located at the intersection of Zhongxiao E Road and Keelung Road, was initially scheduled to begin operating last month, a plan that was pushed back to this month before being delayed again.
Taipei City Department of Transportation Commissioner Lo Shiaw-shyan (羅孝賢) said the department and the operator, Uni-president Development Corp, were finalizing the details of the building and the bus routes, seeking to minimize the impact on area traffic when the bus station opens.
The intersection is one of the busiest in Taipei City.
The bus station is now scheduled to begin operations on Aug. 5. It will serve as a transportation hub for 14 bus companies, with services to Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Yilan.
The planning of the bus station dates back to when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was Taipei mayor 12 years ago. The city planned to build four major bus terminals in the city. The Taipei Bus Station on Chengde Road and Huayin Street was launched last year.
Two more bus terminals will be situated in the Muzha and Yuanshan areas.
While the city government said it was confident it would open the station on schedule, it said it was facing problems similar to those encountered when the Taipei Bus Station was opened, including heavy congestion in the area and concerns about operators making excess profits.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Chen Yu-mei (陳玉梅) said the new bus station in Xinyi District also has a small terminal and waiting area. The station takes up about 2,400 ping (7,934m²) of the 43,000 ping building. The 31-story building also features a shopping mall, restaurants and a hotel, which are scheduled to open in October.
“The bus station occupies only 5.7 percent of the entire building, making it just a facility of the hotel and shopping mall. Controlling traffic and crowds in the area will be a great challenge for the station operators,” she said.
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