The Taipei City Government has added 16 electric buses to its fleet, in a push to cut carbon emissions and noise pollution, the Taipei Department of Transportation told a news conference on Monday.
Shin-Shin Bus, a bus operator, has replaced 16 diesel-powered buses, which served the 236 and 251 shuttle lines, with electric vehicles, department Director Chen Hsueh-tai (陳學台) said, adding that the move was part of a planned decommissioning of aging buses.
Under the Executive Yuan directive for replacing all urban public buses with electric vehicles by 2030, Taipei began introducing electric buses to its fleet in 2018 and expects to have put 529 electric buses on the road by 2022, he said.
Photo: Tsai Szu-pei, Taipei Times
Prices for diesel-engined buses, which cost about NT$5 million (US$175,396) per vehicle, are initially cheaper than electric buses, but they pollute, require more expensive servicing and are more expensive to operate, Chen said.
Due to engine noise and vibrations, they are less comfortable for passengers, he added.
Electric buses cost from NT$10 million to NT$12 million, but they save costs, and offer more comfort and safety, he said.
Advanced driver-assistance system, which are standard on electric buses, could warn the driver of dangerous situations, for example when the gap between the bus and other vehicles is too small, when the driver unintentionally leaves a lane or drives at excessive speed, Chen said.
Taipei’s low-floored diesel buses are typically used for eight years, while properly maintained electric buses are expected to remain in service for about 12 years, he said.
Taipei this year granted subsidies to bus operators for the purchase of 258 electric buses and requested central government subsidies for 223 more vehicles, in a bid to meet the 2022 targets, Chen said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai