Giving Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) a thumbs-up for planning the central city’s new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) blue line that he said is as good as a subway, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday also lauded Hu’s governance as better than that of Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).
Ma made the remarks after a 3.5km ride on the Bus Rapid Transit route along Taiwan Boulevard on the eve of the opening of its year-long free service.
Ma, who is also Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, said that every time he visits Greater Taichung, the city gives him a different impression, as it is gradually transforming into an international metropolis.
Photo: CNA
He touted the effort Hu has put into the regeneration of Maple Park, describing it as an example of “turning trash into treasure.”
Saying the bus system offers a great view along its route, Ma said he thinks the public transportation system is better than Taipei’s MRT metropolitan rail system, which is mostly underground.
Ma said he thinks the acronym “BRT” should stand for “Bravo Remarkable Taichung,” expressing hopes that there will be good follow-up work that can make the system in Taichung a model for public transport development in other cities.
Hu, a KMT member running for re-election in the Nov. 29 elections, was smiling ear to ear in response to Ma’s praise.
The 17.2km-long blue line connects Taichung’s railway station and Providence University in the western part of the city. It is one of six BRT lines that are expected to be completed one after another, with the final line opening in 2019.
The system consists of articulated buses — whose sections are connected by a pivoting point — that can carry up to 120 passengers and, for the most part, travels in a dedicated bus lane.
For the next year, passengers using electronic travel cards such as an EasyCard or iPass can use the blue line for free.
Ma also touted Hu’s management of government funds, saying he was more capable than Hau at reducing city government deficits.
In response, Hau, a KMT member, later yesterday said through a Taipei City Government spokesperson that he believes city policies should be judged as an integrated whole, adding that he thinks different cities can learn from each other’s strengths and together become better.
Separately, when questioned by reporters, independent Taipei mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said Ma made a gaffe in his compliments for Hu.
It seems Ma’s definition of “good governance” is different from that held by the general public, Ko said, likening Hau and Hu’s mayoral stints to a test in which the mayors are like two students who respectively scored 38 and 40 percent — both failing the test.
KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文), on the other hand, said that he thinks Hu is good at marketing Taichung and that Hau is decisive in implementing Taipei City’s policies.
“I have much to learn from them both,” Lien said.
Additional reporting by Chiu Shao-wen and Wu Liang-yi
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat