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.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS