The number of passengers traveling on trains operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) last year fell for the second consecutive year, due mainly to a decrease in ridership on Ziqiang and Juguang express services, according to a report released yesterday by the Legislative Yuan’s budget center.
Ridership on TRA trains last year totaled 230.37 million, an annual decline of about 8 percent, a significantly steeper drop than the 0.26 percent fall recorded in 2015, the report showed.
The TRA’s two main express services, which both require advance booking, have been seeing a steady decline in ridership over the past few years, the report showed.
The passenger load factor on Ziqiang trains fell to 70.31 percent last year, compared with 76.33 percent in 2013, according to the report, which did not give precise ridership data for the service.
On the Juguang service, the passenger load factor was 42.89 percent last year, compared with 57.16 percent in 2013, the report showed.
For all TRA trains, the average load factor fell from 66.85 percent in 2013 to 63.28 percent last year, the report showed.
The decline in the number of passengers is an indication of the TRA’s inefficient operations, the report said, recommending that the railway step up its efforts to become more competitive.
One of the problems faced by the TRA is staff shortage, which was more acute last year than in 2015, the report said, adding that the administration has not been hiring enough replacements for employees who retire or resign, and as a result, it faced a shortage of 2,023 workers at the end of last year.
Since then, the number has climbed to 4,080, the report said, citing figures valid as of August.
It recommended immediate action to deal with the employee shortage and improve TRA’s operations in general.
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