Registered Taipei residents might be able to use their Senior Citizen Cards to take free rides on trains operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
A timetable for the plan has not yet been decided upon, as the city government is still holding discussions on the matter with the TRA, Ko said as he presented a report on the city’s increasing aged population at a Taipei City Council hearing.
The card, which can be used by registered residents aged 65 and older who are either citizens or permanent residents of Taiwan, contains 480 points that are topped up every month by the Taipei City Government. One point is equivalent to NT$1.
Photo: CNA
The points can be used to take buses, the MRT, taxis and YouBikes, and at any of the city’s 12 district sports centers.
The number of registered citizens and permanent residents in Taipei aged 65 and older totaled 504,028 as of February this year, which accounts for more than 20 percent of the city’s population, Ko said.
As the city’s population and proportion of older people is expected to continue rising, more people would use Senior Citizen Cards for transportation, which would greatly increase the city’s expenditure, Ko said.
He projected that by 2031, the city’s allocated budget for the Senior Citizen Cards would increase by as much as NT$419.22 million (US$14.27 million).
He did not specify the current budget.
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
ASEAN BATTLEGROUND: Japan and Australia could be drawn into Pacific tensions as China sets its sights on the Diaoyutai Islands and further beyond the first island chain Tensions between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to intensify, the National Security Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, recommending that Taiwan continue to emphasize its shared values and interests to encourage resistance to Chinese aggression. US commitments in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to continue unabated despite the war in Ukraine, as Beijing takes advantage of the conflict to expand its influence in the region, the agencies said in reports delivered to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Sunday, ahead of a hearing yesterday on regional developments and trends. Although Russia’s invasion of
ONLINE REPORT: Confirmed cases filling out the online contact tracing report can check a box to indicate that a close contact had received a booster dose, an official said The guidelines for diagnosing COVID-19 have been revised to include people aged 65 or older who test positive with a rapid test that is confirmed by a healthcare worker, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 65,794 new local infections. The CECC had first announced the change on Monday, before publishing the new guidelines. Starting today, people aged 65 or older, regardless of whether they are undergoing home quarantine, home isolation or self-disease prevention, can be classified as a confirmed COVID-19 case by a healthcare professional, based on a positive result from an antigen rapid test, said
INFLUENCERS: The Chinese Communist Party uses social media to paint itself in a positive light, while promoting historical ties between Taiwan and China Government agencies are considering measures to counter China’s use of Taiwanese Internet celebrities to conduct “cognitive warfare” campaigns in Taiwan, a source said yesterday. China has trained local Internet celebrities to help it spread propaganda as part of its “united front” efforts against Taiwan, the source said, adding that Beijing was also using TikTok, a Pinterest-like app called Xiaohongshu (also known as Little Red Book) and other social media to influence young Taiwanese. Citing the Mainland Affairs Council, the source said that officials had warned people cooperating with China that they could face fines or other punishments. Stipulations under the Act Governing Relations
RSS