Smooth passenger traffic was mostly observed yesterday on the first working day of the TPass monthly transit card program and Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said that he hoped that all turnstiles at stations would be able to scan the new cards by the end of the year.
As the program was only finalized in March, the companies only had three months to upgrade the turnstiles and TPass card users have to go through designated gates at Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) stations, the Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line and the Taichung MRT, Wang said.
The Taipei and Kaohsiung MRT systems had previous experience operating contactless turnstiles for their respective monthly passes, so all their turnstiles are accessible for TPass card users, he said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The new regional public transport card had been used for an estimated 414,000 journeys since it was launched on Saturday in northern, central and southern Taiwan, Wang said, adding that about 307,000 TPass cards had been sold so far in the three regions.
The TPass issued in Taipei can be used for travel in three other cities in northern Taiwan — Keelung, New Taipei City and Taoyuan — while the other versions cover Taichung and Miaoli, Nantou and Changhua counties in central Taiwan; and Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung County in the south.
In Taichung, use of the TPass also was progressing smoothly yesterday, said the Taichung Transportation Bureau, which reported sales of 17,000 cards since presales began on June 15.
Commuter traffic was also flowing well at the TRA stations in Kaohsiung, although a few people had forgotten to activate their TPass cards and could not get though the turnstiles.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday used a TPass card to travel on the MRT from Taipei to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
She said that transportation is an important part of life, as many people have to commute to work, and she hoped the new monthly pass would help ease the financial burden.
Tsai also encouraged more people to take public transportation to reduce carbon emissions for the sake of the environment.
The central government has allocated NT$20 billion (US$642.4 million) over the next three years to subsidize projects for the implementation of regional monthly transit passes across Taiwan, Wang said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
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,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
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.
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