Starting in July, Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) passengers will be able to bring their pets on board, the nation's largest railway service provider said yesterday.
TRA director general Frank Fan (范植谷) said the administration is conducting a survey to test public opinion on the measure.
The questionnaires will be distributed to TRA passengers nationwide and the entire survey is scheduled to be completed this month, he said.
Fan said that the survey results will merely serve as reference and even if the majority of passengers oppose the deal, the administration will try implementing this measure for a couple of months to determine if it is indeed unfeasible.
“The same procedure was used when we tested the viability of reserved cabins for female passengers,” he said.
The administration eventually decided to cancel the female-only cabin service after it had been executed for six months.
Fan said the administration has completed a similar survey in 2003, and the results showed that 72 percent of passengers opposed the measure.
Lawmakers serving at the legislature’s Transportation Committee also urged the administration to quickly execute the measure as it could help boost sagging TRA ticket sales.
They even suggested that the administration could assign passengers with pets to sit in certain carriages on a train.
In response, Fan said the proposal would require the administration to overcome several technical difficulties.
Currently, the TRA’s ticketing system assigns passengers with the same destination to sit in certain carriages.
Those heading to Taichung, for example, could be assigned to sit in the first and second carriages, and the third and fourth carriages are reserved for passengers heading Kaohsiung.
In that case, the TRA would have to tweak the ticketing system if they want to reserve carriages for pet owners.
Fan said the administration has not decided on the specifications of the containers for pets, adding that it would seek reference from other transportation systems.
However, he said, in principle, the administration could allow small-size animals to board the train with the passengers, like carry-on luggage. They would have to check in their luggage if it is a large-size animal.
Only passengers taking express trains would be able to use the service, he said.
Specific rules would also be applied to regulate the carriage of special pets, such as snakes and lizards.
The Taiwan High Speed Rail, on the other hand, requires that the animal must be placed in a container of no more that 55cm in length, 45cm in width and 38cm in height.
Passengers must put the containers under their seats, and they also need to ensure that excrement or fluids do not leak from the containers.
Rather than reserved cabins, pet owners are randomly seated in different carriages on the high speed rail.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
RSS