As Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system has been losing money every year, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) yesterday said that it plans to cancel a 20 percent discount for using electronic payment cards to pay fares.
The company informed the Taipei City Council’s Transportation Committee of the plan at a morning meeting.
Passengers who use an EasyCard or other electronic payment cards on the MRT system with an electronic payment card receive a 20 percent discount on each ride.
Photo: Lin Chia-yu, Taipei Times
However, while the system’s passenger volume has exceeded 2 million rides per day, TRTC said that it has run a deficit every year since the system’s inception 23 years ago, losing up to NT$100 million (US$3.2 million) annually over the past few years.
Operating revenue is in the negative again this year, with the deficit totaling more than NT$40 million in the first four months of the year, and the company expects to lose up to NT$130 million by the end of the year, TRTC general manager Yen Pang-chieh (顏邦傑) said.
Nonoperating revenue streams have compensated for the deficit in operating revenue, but the ticket discount policy must be reconsidered, he said.
While Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor William Hsu (徐弘庭) said that canceling the discount would lead to increased costs for passengers, Yen said that TRTC is considering giving greater discounts to people who take the MRT more frequently.
“It is an unreasonable marketing strategy to give tourists or people who hardly ride the MRT a 20 percent discount, while those who use it more often should receive a bigger discount,” he said, adding that the “loyalty discount” plan is being evaluated and would be submitted to the city government for approval before the end of the year.
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