Taiwan’s main railway operators yesterday said that they would seek to reduce ridership on trains to about 20 percent of capacity during the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The aim to reduce ridership is in compliance with Central Epidemic Command Center guidelines, and amid concerns that the virus would spread among travelers and during family gatherings, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said.
Since ticket presale for TRA trains started on May 14, 33,000 tickets had been sold, with a cancelation rate of about 76 percent, the agency said.
The number of sold tickets could fall to below 30,000, as more cancelations are expected, the agency added.
TRA data showed that only 59 reserved seat tickets had been sold for express trains from Taipei to Kaohsiung on Friday evening and Sunday morning, and 57 tickets had been sold for Kaohsiung-to-Taipei trips on Monday next week.
Based on reservations, only 10 train services so far have a load factor of more than 20 percent, the agency said, adding that it has stopped selling tickets for those trains.
Seeking to reduce ridership on those trains, the agency would monitor ticket cancelations for the 10 services, and might use train cars with more seats or add more services around the same departure times, it said.
THSRC said that it would require people with tickets on trains that have a load factor of more than 20 percent to reschedule their trips.
It is informing them via text message, e-mail and customer service personnel, the company said, adding that it would waive cancelation fees for those travelers
“We hope that passengers who have received text messages or e-mails reply as quickly as possible so that we can make adjustments for them,” THSRC said, adding that the measure is necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19. During the holiday, high-speed rail passengers could ask train personnel to change seats if they cannot maintain proper distance from others, it said.
Starting today, THSRC would stop selling lunchboxes at its train stations nationwide, the company said.
People who have canceled their tickets amid a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert since May 19 and have not applied for a refund could do so within 12 months, it said, adding that it has waived the refund deadline and processing fees.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS