Eleven Taipei Metro Bus routes were launched yesterday, and commuters who travel on the routes or the 29 bus routes between Taipei and New Taipei City could receive a 50 percent tranfer discount if they take buses in the two cities within an hour.
During his 2014 campaign for Taipei mayor, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) promised to adjust Taipei’s bus routes to encourage more commuters to use public transport and to help reduce traffic congestion during rush hours.
Ko last year said that an “eight horizontal and eight vertical” route system — for buses that travel mainly on eight north-south and eight east-west major roads with shorter dispatch intervals — would take effect by the end of this year.
The first phase was implemented on July 5 last year when five routes — Renai (仁愛), Minsheng (民生), Neihu (內湖), Dunhua (敦化) and Songjiang-Xinsheng (松江新生) — were launched.
The Taipei Public Transportation Office said bus ridership increased by 5 percent afterward.
The 11 routes launched yesterday are: Zhongxiao (忠孝), Xinyi (信義), Heping (和平), Nanjing (南京), Minquan (民權), Zhongshan (中山), Roosevelt Road (羅斯福路), Keelung Road (基隆路), Chongqing (重慶), Fuxing (復興) and Chengde (承德).
The “metro-like” Taipei Metro Buses have a dispatch interval of about four to six minutes during rush hours and five to 10 minutes during non-rush hours on weekdays.
E-ticket (such as the EasyCard) users receive a 50 percent discount for boarding a second bus within an hour of riding on a Taipei Metro Bus or one of 29 Taipei-New Taipei City routes.
With 16 new routes, the office said it expects bus ridership to increase to nearly 220,000 people per day, accounting for about one-sixth of the city’s total bus ridership, with about 35,000 transfers per day.
In related news, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp has launched a trial run for passengers who want to bring bicycles onto MRT trains on weekdays between 10am and 4pm.
Riders must follow the same rules as those applied on weekends: They must purchase a NT$80 bicycle ticket at a service counter, only use the first or last cabin on a train and cannot enter the seven stations that are among the most crowded.
The Wenhu Line (文湖線) also remains off-limits.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS