The non-profit Consumers’ Foundation yesterday urged the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to use an “iron fist” to pressure Taiwan High Speed Rail Co (THSRC) to introduce additional discount schemes to make up for its seriously insufficient but in-demand early-bird discount tickets and to ask the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) to increase the number of its sought-after Puyuma Express trains.
In an effort to find out how difficult it is to purchase the early-bird discount tickets for TRA trains, which go on sale 14 days before the departure date, the foundation tried from July 18 to July 25 to buy a round-trip Puyuma Express train ticket from Taipei to Hualien that departed two weeks later either between 11am and 2pm or between 4pm and 7pm — the two periods when the tickets are in highest demand.
It found that the success rate for booking a Taipei-Hualien ticket for departure on a Friday is just 27 percent, while the rate is 70 percent for trains leaving on Saturdays and Wednesdays, 88 percent for Thursday trains, and 100 percent for Monday and Tuesday departures.
As for Hualien-Taipei tickets, the chance of getting a ticket for a Sunday train is zero, followed by Monday and Wednesday trains at 29 percent, Friday trains at 33 percent, Saturday trains at 60 percent, and Tuesday and Thursday departures at 71 percent, the foundation said.
In addition, the association found that people have almost no chance of buying a 35 percent-off early-bird ticket — which is available 28 days before the travel date — for southbound high speed rail trains that depart on Fridays.
The possibility of getting a discount ticket for northbound trains leaving on the same day of the week is also slim, ranging from 3 to 10 percent, depending on the destination, the association said.
“We urge the THSRC and the TRA to either increase the number of trains or offer other discount plans, so that their discount tickets will not just be pies in the sky,” it said.
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