Workers from the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) yesterday successfully called for the renegotiation of a contract between the TRA and the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC). They said the present contract would lead to a reduction in TRA services that could cost them their jobs.
Over 1,000 TRA workers from all over Taiwan protested against the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in front of the Legislative Yuan, which was to host a public hearing on the issue yesterday. They said that the ministry had helped the THSRC to take unfair advantage of the TRA by forcing the TRA to sign an unfair contract with the THSRC last year.
The dispute concerns usage by THSRC -- the private company which is constructing the Taipei to Kaohsiung High Speed Railway Line -- of a TRA platform and two railway lines in Taipei.
To help the THSRC's construction project, the TRA was asked to make available in perpetuity to THSRC one platform at Taipei Main Station and two railway lines between that station and Sungshan Station in Taipei from July -- which would force the TRA to cancel 104 of its current 376 daily train services between Taipei and Sungshan. The TRA workers say this will cost the company NT$2.4 billion annually.
The existing contract does not require THSRC to pay compensation to the TRA, but the government is bound by the terms of its own build-operate-transfer contract with the THSRC, which states that it is the government's responsibility to provide such TRA facilities as the THSRC may request.
Huang De-zh (
The PFP legislative caucus hosted the public hearing, which was attended by representatives from the ministry -- including its bureau of high-speed rail and the TRA -- and representatives of the workers.
The workers' representatives asked the government to ask the THSRC to pay a total of NT$3.6 billion for the TRA's loss, and NT$23 billion as rent for using the facilities.
Chang Chia-juch (
Chang emphasized that both the TRA and the high-speed railway project is administered by the ministry, and the two should not be in conflict with each other.
The meeting concluded with the workers' representatives agreeing with Chang that a new contract should be negotiated and that the TRA need not comply with the THSRC's requests until the TRA and THSRC have agreed on a sum for compensation.
The TRA has about 17,000 employees and loses some NT$65 billion annually.
"We need a clear transport policy that separates the high speed railway from the TRA, otherwise, the TRA will just be out of the market," said PFP legislator Thomas Lee (
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant
Beijing’s recent provocative actions against the Philippines in the South China Sea were partly meant as a “dress rehearsal” for the invasion of Taiwan, former US deputy national security advisor Matt Pottinger said at a Heritage Foundation forum in Washington on Tuesday. Beijing’s blocking of a Philippine resupply mission on June 17 with unprecedented violence had multiple implications. “What they’re doing is trying to demonstrate that they can blockade, create a sense of futility and discredit the idea that the United States is going to help not only the Philippines, but by extension Taiwan,” Pottinger said. Pottinger was referring to a clash