The decision by the Central Personnel Administration (CPA) on Friday evening to make next Monday (Oct. 9) an official national holiday this year has thrown transportation plans into confusion.
The Mid-Autumn Festival this year falls on Friday with Double Ten National Day falling on the following Tuesday, which would have left the Monday in between as a work day.
CPA minister Chou Hung-hsien (周弘憲) said yesterday that the administration made the decision to add the extra day off due to pressure from the public and law-makers over the past two months. He denied the decision was made for any political reason.
To avoid a potentially chaotic situation, Minister of Transportation and Communications Tsai Duei (
Tsai was asked later by the press whether his ministry had been consulted before the Executive Yuan delivered the administrative order.
"We sent representatives to the Cabinet meeting, and I got the news immediately after the decision was made," Tsai replied.
"Transportation is a service industry," he added, "and we simply have to do everything based on the needs of passengers."
Tsai said transportation provisions had already taken into consideration the possibility that many passengers would take next Monday off and arrange for a five-day holiday. The adjustments which need to be made are minor, he said.
The alterations will mainly affect motorists or passengers on long distance buses or trains.
The Taiwan Area National Freeway Bureau announced yesterday that motorists, whether driving through manual toll collection gates or those installed with electronic toll collection systems, will not be charged from 12am to 6am between Friday (Oct.6) and Oct. 11.
On Double Ten day, the last day of the holiday, northbound feeder roads in Chungli (中壢), Shuishang (水上) and Tainan on the Sun Yat-sen Freeway, and the feeder road in Dasi (
The Directorate General of Highways said yesterday that it will now allow bus customers to change return dates without charging them processing fees.
It, however, will neither accept returned tickets nor provide refunds.
The Taiwan Railway Administration announced yesterday morning that passengers who have already purchased tickets for Oct. 7, 8, 9 and 10 may request refunds from train stations without being charged processing fees.
The administration's regulations normally require that a NT$13 processing fee be charged for each refund request. It decided not to make the charge in this case since the CPA's announcement came at the last minute.
However, passengers who plan to return their tickets must do so in person at train stations.
For those who purchased their tickets online but haven't yet picked them up at a station, the ticketing system will cancel their reservations automatically after three days. They can then re-order new tickets.
Legislators yesterday expressed mixed feelings over the Executive Yuan's last-minute announcement about the holidays.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the decision was made in haste and the government may have been better off implementing a contingency plan so its good intentions would be better appreciated.
"The industrial sector finds it hard to deal with such an abrupt decision and some businesses have voiced complaints," Wang said. "If the government had made the decision earlier, less people would be inconvenienced."
Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Ho Min-hao (
However, Ho said the administration might have wanted to solicit opinion from industry first before making the decision.
People First Party Spokesman Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) criticized the Executive Yuan for what he described as adopting double standards because he said that while the administration had voiced opposition to the "soft strike" the anti-Chen camp planned to initiate, it had now approved a five-day holiday.
"They are allowing businesses and schools to stage a different soft strike," Lee said. "I'd like to know what their criteria are."
Lee said the Executive Yuan's sudden decision had caught many people by surprise. Many businesses did not have time to respond and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications had failed to map out any plan to help travellers who would using the longer break to return to their home towns or villages for the holidays.
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