The state-run Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to raise its ticket prices by between 11 and 27 percent.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Allen Hu (胡湘麟) on Saturday said that the proposed fare hikes need to be discussed by a review committee, but a meeting date has not been set.
With its fares frozen for 28 years since 1995, the TRA proposed raising its ticket prices, which would generate a 1 percent profit for the longtime loss-making train operator.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
Under the proposal, tickets for Tze-Chiang express trains would increase 11 percent, while fares for Chu-Kuang express trains would rise 15 percent and tickets for local trains would increase 27 percent.
Under the new prices, the fare from Taipei to Kaohsiung would increase from NT$843 to NT$940 on a Tze-Chiang train, while the cost would rise from NT$114 to NT$145 for a local train from Taipei to Hsinchu.
Former transportation minister Ho Chen-tan (賀陳旦) said that increases do not have to apply to all passengers, but only for certain users, similar to how Taiwan Power Co charges different rates for household and industrial users.
Lee Ker-tsung (李克聰), a transportation technology and management expert with the Consumers’ Foundation, said the TRA could increase fares only for certain lines, such as sightseeing and busy commuter routes.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kuo-tsai (王國材) yesterday said that as the TRA is still in the corporatization process, ticket prices would not change before the end of the year.
The fare adjustment would also need to be approved by the new board of directors at that time, before discussions could be held by the ministry, he said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so