Amid complaints about the difficult of purchasing train tickets to east coast destinations through the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) online system, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker on the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday asked why it is much easier — and faster — to buy them through Chinese online shopping Web site Taobao.
The committee was scheduled to review an amendment to the Railway Act (鐵路法) — proposed by People First Party Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) and several others — that would raise fines for scalping railway tickets.
However, some committee members voiced concern that tougher penalties would not prevent ticket scalping.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
DPP Legislator Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清) said he used Taobao to buy tickets to Hualien after failing to obtain some from the TRA Web site, and it only took five minutes.
“Train tickets to Hualien on Friday are the most difficult ones to get. The premier [Simon Chang (張善政)] had to get up at 12am to try to book tickets to the east coast and could not get them,” he said.
Showing a screenshot of a Taobao Web page, Cheng said: “You can see from the message in simplified Chinese that the transaction was successfully processed. You can get the tickets right away by paying a processing fee of 60 yuan [US$9.24]. Is that not ironic?” Cheng said.
There are more than 30 sellers on Taobao who can arrange for TRA tickets, with buyers able to collect their tickets at a convenience store by entering their national identification card (ID) numbers, Cheng said.
The TRA reported that it had 200 abnormal ticket transaction cases last year, and 34 between January and last month, and it has no way to prevent such sales by monitoring just one Internet address, he added.
DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said the proposed amendment might allow the TRA to penalize scalpers, but it would still be difficult to punish people who simultaneously book a large number of tickets online by using the ID numbers of several people.
Such buyers are exploiting loopholes and making money by charging buyers processing fees, he said.
Although a 2014 amendment to the Railway Act stipulated penalties for scalping and illegal online ticket sales, it has had a limited effect, Cheng Yun-peng said.
People who illegally buy and sell train tickets online should be charged with forgery instead, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of between NT$100,000 and NT$3 million (US$3,090 and US$30,901), he said.
The TRA should consider requiring ticket buyers to present their National Health Insurance cards when seeking tickets through a 4G ticketing system to be launched next year.
TRA Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) told the committee that his agency and the Ministry of Justice are discussing ways to deal with China over the legal issues in this particular matter, while the Railway Police Bureau is forming an ad hoc team to tackle the situation with Taobao.
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