Taiwan’s main railway operators yesterday said that they would seek to reduce ridership on trains to about 20 percent of capacity during the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The aim to reduce ridership is in compliance with Central Epidemic Command Center guidelines, and amid concerns that the virus would spread among travelers and during family gatherings, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said.
Since ticket presale for TRA trains started on May 14, 33,000 tickets had been sold, with a cancelation rate of about 76 percent, the agency said.
The number of sold tickets could fall to below 30,000, as more cancelations are expected, the agency added.
TRA data showed that only 59 reserved seat tickets had been sold for express trains from Taipei to Kaohsiung on Friday evening and Sunday morning, and 57 tickets had been sold for Kaohsiung-to-Taipei trips on Monday next week.
Based on reservations, only 10 train services so far have a load factor of more than 20 percent, the agency said, adding that it has stopped selling tickets for those trains.
Seeking to reduce ridership on those trains, the agency would monitor ticket cancelations for the 10 services, and might use train cars with more seats or add more services around the same departure times, it said.
THSRC said that it would require people with tickets on trains that have a load factor of more than 20 percent to reschedule their trips.
It is informing them via text message, e-mail and customer service personnel, the company said, adding that it would waive cancelation fees for those travelers
“We hope that passengers who have received text messages or e-mails reply as quickly as possible so that we can make adjustments for them,” THSRC said, adding that the measure is necessary to prevent the spread of COVID-19. During the holiday, high-speed rail passengers could ask train personnel to change seats if they cannot maintain proper distance from others, it said.
Starting today, THSRC would stop selling lunchboxes at its train stations nationwide, the company said.
People who have canceled their tickets amid a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert since May 19 and have not applied for a refund could do so within 12 months, it said, adding that it has waived the refund deadline and processing fees.
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