With the expansion of Taipei’s MRT lines and growth in ridership, the number of lost items left by passengers has also increased, reaching more than 10,000 items per month since December, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday.
TRTC’s lost property service received about 100,000 lost items last year, and the monthly pace began increasing in December, with umbrellas, EasyCards and cash the three most frequently lost items, TRTC customer service department director Yu Chia-chuan (游家銓) said.
The operator yesterday opened a new lost property center at Taipei Main Station, and made public lost items collected in MRT trains and stations. Of the lost items last year, which ranged from guitars to wheelchairs, and bicycles to false teeth, 17,600 were umbrellas, TRTC said.
“The number of lost items increased recently after the launch of the Xinzhuang and Luzhou lines, and we are calling on passengers to take care of their belongings, especially umbrellas and small items,” he said.
Yu said the lost items would be collected at the Taipei Main Station lost property center.
Only about 40 percent of lost items were reclaimed by owners, he said.
TRTC keeps lost items for nine months, but items can be claimed by the people who found them if owners fail to claim them back within six months. Under the law, the company owns the items if no one claims them after nine months, he said.
So what happens to the thousands of unclaimed umbrellas?
Yu said TRTC would be making them into courtesy umbrellas with “Metro Taipei” stickers on them and placing them at MRT stations for passengers to use.
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