The Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans to honor a commitment to expand a 30-day bus and MRT pass to cover northern regions, despite the four mayoral candidates who proposed the idea not being elected on Saturday, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
The Taipei City Government and New Taipei City Government fund the monthly pass with an annual subsidy of NT$560 million and NT$380 million (US$18.06 million and US$12.25 million) per year respectively.
The pass was introduced in 2018 by the governments of Taipei City and New Taipei City.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
For NT$1,280, the pass provides unlimited travel for 30 days within and between the two cities on their MRT and bus systems, and also includes free use of the YouBike system for 30 minutes per trip.
Prior to Saturday’s elections, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei mayoral candidate Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), New Taipei City mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), Keelung mayoral candidate Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) and Taoyuan mayoral candidate Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said they would expand the monthly pass plan to include commuters in Keelung and Taoyuan, and lower the price to NT$1,200 per 30 days.
“The monthly pass was introduced to encourage the use of the public transportation system. It helps conserve energy, cut carbon emissions and reduce traffic accidents and deaths,” Wang said.
“So long as city government officials make proposals on how they want to execute monthly pass plans, we will review them and make the subsidies available based on their proposals,” he said.
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