The high-speed rail’s new quiet carriage policy has sparked concern over children disturbing other passengers, prompting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Ching-hui (陳菁徽) to call on relevant ministries to devise more flexible measures within a month.
Under the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) new policy, passengers must switch their mobile phones to silent, use headphones when watching videos or listening to music, and only make phone calls in gangways.
Although the THSRC said that the policy does not restrict children and those with special circumstances, parents said they worry that fussy children would draw increased attention from other passengers.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp
Chen said that since this policy was launched, the THSRC has stated that if children make noise or disturb other passengers, they would help soothe them and offer small treats.
Children can only express their needs through crying, so just soothing them is not enough, Chen said.
Staff approaching crying children would only draw attention from other passengers and label the family as causing a disturbance, she said.
Chen called on the Ministry of Health and Welfare to work with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to devise more flexible measures within a month.
Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said his ministry last month asked the transport ministry to supervise the THSRC in addressing the controversy and would continue to monitor the situation.
The THSRC on Thursday last week said that from Sept. 22 to Wednesday last week, staff made a total of 13,000 reminders to passengers about quiet carriage rules, averaging fewer than five reminders per train.
More than 70 percent of these instances involved passengers talking on their phone or playing sounds aloud, it said.
According to the company’s data, 49 percent involved passengers talking on their phone, 24 percent involved passengers watching videos or listening to music without headphones, and 27 percent involved people chatting loudly enough to disturb other passengers.
Cases involving infants and children were extremely rare, THSRC said.
This shows that most noise during travel can be controlled through passengers’ own consideration and self-discipline, it said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS