A blind woman last week on Facebook praised the service she received from the Taiwan Railways Administration, which she said not only made her travels significantly easier, but also rekindled her love for the agency.
According to the woman’s post, service was excellent from the moment she started her journey at Kaohsiung’s Xinzuoying Station, where staff immediately approached her and asked whether she required assistance to reach her train.
After the woman told them she did not require assistance, station staff said they would not notify the train’s crew.
However, the train’s conductor approached her and asked about her destination, she said.
After learning her destination and plans to transfer at Zhongzhou Station in Tainan’s Rende District (仁德), the conductor verified the train schedules and contacted staff at that station, she said.
As the train neared Zhongzhou, the conductor reminded her that it was her stop, she said, adding that after alighting from the train, a member of the station’s staff was waiting on the platform to guide her to another platform.
The post said the woman was again surprised when the conductor of the train to Chang Jung Christian University Station stopped in the car she was riding in to announce its arrival at the station, as Zhongzhou Station staff had apparently notified the conductor, she said.
The woman thanked all staff for helping make her journey a smooth one, saying that the assistance, despite having been told staff would not be notified, was heart-warming and helped to rekindle her passion for the administration.
Xinzuoying Station Master Liu Chun-che (劉俊哲) said that staff had not notified the conductor of the train to Zhongzhou about the passenger, who approached the woman on their own initiative after seeing her guide dog at her side.
The conductor had called ahead to Zhongzhou Station, as there was only a three-minute window to transfer between the trains, Liu added.
The administration said its staff had performed their duties and were to be commended for handling the situation well, adding that it would turn the story into a case study for reference by all staff.
An amendment to the Railroad Act (鐵路法) passed by the Legislative Yuan on May 25 guarantees visually impaired people the right to enter train stations with guide dogs.
Prior to the change, Article 71 of the act stipulated that taking animals into stations or onto trains without permission was punishable with a fine of NT$1,500 to NT$7,500, which was amended to create an exception for trained guide dogs.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS