About NT$200,000 (US$6,300) in rebates introduced by Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp last year to reward frequent passengers expired before they could be claimed, the operator of the city’s metropolitan railway service said on Monday.
Since the introduction of the reward program on Sept. 1 last year, the total value of the rebates for passengers using electronic payment cards reached NT$3.01 million as of Friday last week, Taichung MRT said in a statement.
However, about 7 percent of the total rebate, or NT$200,000, expired before eligible passengers claimed their rewards within the six-month period allotted, the company said.
Photo: Chang Hsuan-che, Taipei Times
Under the reward program, passengers making 30 to 39 trips a month would recover 10 percent of their travel costs the following month. The rebate is automatically added to their payment card when they tap it at a ticketing machine at any station.
Passengers who make 40 to 49 trips a month receive 20 percent of the money they spent the previous month, while those making 50 to 59 trips receive 25 percent and passengers making 60 or more trips receive 30 percent.
Taichung MRT said that 91 percent of the unclaimed money belonged to passengers whose payment cards were not registered with the metro service operator’s app.
By installing the app and having their payment cards registered, passengers can check how many trips they make each month and receive a reminder when they can collect the reward, Taichung MRT said.
Similar situations have been reported by the Taipei MRT and New Taipei City’s light rail service operator since 2020, when Taipei MRT first introduced a reward program.
Passengers receive 10 percent for 11 to 20 journeys on the Taipei MRT and up to 30 percent for 51 journeys or more.
The issue was raised in October last year by a Taipei city councilor, who asked how Taipei MRT planned to deal with the unclaimed rewards of NT$12.99 million at that time.
Taipei MRT said that it had extended the claim period from six months to one year, and would seek other ways to increase awareness of the program.
It also said it would promote the use of its app, which sends reminders to passengers about unclaimed rewards.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
RSS