The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) will offer a “frequent rider” program from March 30, allowing member customers to accumulate mileage on the railway. Memberships can exchange points for tickets, or be given priority when it comes to ticket refunds.
Taiwan Railway spokesman Chang Ying-hui (張應輝) said that once the membership system is up and running, Taiwanese nationals could register at www.railway.gov.tw/.
According to the TRA, one point is awarded for every 80km, or every NT$30. For example, a round-trip journey between Taipei and Kaohsiung would accumulate 50 points, while a round-trip journey between Taipei and Taichung would accumulate 22 points.
Customers can exchange 500 points for a ticket that covers a travel distance of 100km or less with a face value within NT$227. For 750 points, they can get a ticket covering travel distances within 200km. Customers can exchange the maximum 4,000 points for a three-day TR-PASS, valued at NT$1,800.
According to Chang, points are valid for two years from the date of accumulation and membership status may be shared with family and friends.
Meanwhile, in response to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Kun-cheng’s (賴坤成) criticism that travelers on the Hualien-Taitung line pay high prices for tickets yet sit in -decades-old cars that aren’t even electrified, Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) promised to tackle the issue within three months.
In other news, beginning on April 1, all of the nation’s senior citizens and physically challenged individuals will be granted a 50 percent discount on mass rapid transit (MRT) fares in Taipei and Greater Kaohsiung, the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) said.
The benefit was previously limited only to residents of the two special municipalities who are over age 65 or are physically challenged, but will now be offered to visitors from outside the two cities, CPC official Liu Chin-fang (劉清芳) said.
The new measure was initiated after authorities convinced local governments outside of Taipei and Kaohsiung to bear the costs of the discounted fares rather than having the MRT operators in the two cities absorb the losses in revenue, the CPC said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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