The Taiwan Railways Administration yesterday said it would start trial runs next week of a “real-name” ticketing system for residents of Hualien and Taitung counties purchasing round-trip tickets to the east coast during the Dragon Boat Festival.
The system, which is to begin its trial run on Wednesday next week, has been proposed as a way to ensure that those born in Hualien and Taitung counties can purchase tickets to go home during the big three national holidays — the Lunar New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival — when tickets are in high demand.
The real-name system is to apply to passengers on the eastbound Puyuma Express to Taitung, departing Shulin Station at 7:43am on June 9, and to passengers on the westbound Puyuma Express train to Shulin, departing Taitung at 2:45pm on June 12.
Those who want to purchase tickets for those two trains can start booking tickets at 6am on Wednesday next week, the TRA said.
Only passengers whose personal identification card numbers begin with the letters U or V — which are assigned to people born in Hualien and Taitung — will be able to buy tickets under the real-name system.
Each person can purchase no more than three roundtrip tickets using three qualified ID cards, it said.
The last three digits of the ID cards will appear on the tickets for onboard inspection, it said.
TRA transportation department section chief Chen Yu-mou (陳裕謀) said the system does not apply to those who were not born in Hualien or Taitung, but live there because of work, school or other reasons.
The TRA said the results of the trial run would be included in a comprehensive report to be submitted to the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which had asked the agency to test the system for six months.
In related news, Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) faced questions over his decision not to cancel highways tolls between 11pm and 6am during the four-day Dragon Boat Festival holiday, with several lawmakers saying the ministry should persuade long-distance bus operators to offer larger discounts to travelers during those hours.
Hochen said the ministry made the decision because driving at night increases the risks of traffic accidents, adding that drivers are more likely to speed if the toll is waived.
The ministry should work with law enforcement officers to crack down on speeding, rather than canceling toll-free hours, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Hsuen-sheng (陳雪生) and Independent Legislator Chao Cheng-yu (趙正宇) said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and