A poll released yesterday showed that 67.7 percent of respondents agreed that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should oversee reforms of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) following the Taroko Express No. 408 derailment in Hualien County on April 2.
The train crash, which left 49 people dead and more than 200 injured, is one of the worst train disasters in Taiwanese history.
Transportation authorities have repeatedly said that the TRA will be reformed.
Yen Yung-shen (顏永森), convenor of polling at the Grassroots Influence Foundation, which conducted the survey, told a news conference in Taipei that 48.8 percent of respondents said that they were dissatisfied with the government’s handling of the crash.
The survey showed that 46.5 percent believe that Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), who is allegedly responsible for a crane truck that the train hit, bears the brunt of the responsibility for the disaster, Yen said.
The survey showed that 53.9 percent of respondents are distrustful of the government’s commitment to reform the TRA; 62.6 percent do not believe that the TRA’s institutional problems will be fully resolved; and 48.8 percent believe train safety will not improve, he said.
The survey shows that 78.8 percent believe Tsai should establish a TRA reform task force that reports regularly on its progress, he said.
There were 36.8 percent who believe that the Ministry of Health and Welfare was “profiting from disaster” by opening a charity account following the crash, while 47.7 percent disapproved of the government’s decision to pay NT$400 billion (US$14.33 billion) of TRA debts with public funds, Yen said.
It showed that 63.6 percent feel less safe in trains run by the TRA; 49.2 percent agree that standing-room-only tickets should be eliminated, and 77.7 percent agree that passenger insurance should be part of a rail ticket’s cost, he said.
He said that 53.3 percent agreed that improved safety would validate more expensive tickets and 57.6 percent believe the TRA should transition to a for-profit private enterprise, like Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp.
The government should consider the viability of privatizing the TRA to improve safety, service quality, management efficiency and employees’ rights, Yen said.
Tsai should take charge of TRA reform, because the Executive Yuan failed to improve it, Consumers’ Foundation transportation and communications convenor Lee Ker-tsung (李克聰) said.
Respondents who identified as politically independent were more likely to distrust TRA reforms, an agenda most people agree with in principle, he said.
This shows that the government needs a nonpartisan and cross-ministerial committee on TRA reform, he said.
National Taiwan Normal University professor of civic education and leadership Tseng Kuan-chiu (曾冠球) said that corporatization and privatization of the TRA are inevitable.
Freeing it from civil service regulations would increase its flexibility, Tseng said.
The foundation commissioned Pollster.com.tw to conduct the survey, which garnered 1,100 valid responses from Taiwanese aged 20 or older. It has a margin of error of 2.95 percentage points.
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