Traffic and housing issues were top areas of discussion yesterday in a televised forum attended by the four candidates in the Taoyuan mayoral election on Saturday next week.
Against the background of skyrocketing home prices and rent in Taipei and New Taipei City, and the opening in 2017 of the Taoyuan Airport Mass Rapid Transit (Airport MRT) line linking Taoyuan and Taipei, Taoyuan has become a popular place to relocate to.
In the eight years since Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office, Taoyuan’s population has increased by 210,000, said Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬), the party’s candidate for Taoyuan mayor.
Photo: CNA
Cheng Yun-peng said that under the DPP, the city has become Taiwan’s “most livable.”
If elected, he would accelerate construction of proposed public transportation projects, including the Airport MRT, and a project to put railway lines underground, Cheng Yun-peng said.
He said that the All Pass Ticket, which offers unlimited use of the Taipei MRT system and buses in Taipei and New Taipei City for NT$1,280 per month, should be extended to Taoyuan and the monthly cost reduced to NT$1,200.
“In the past eight years, Cheng Wen-tsan created ‘Taoyuanism.’ In the next eight years, I will let the other local administrations see Taoyuan as an example to learn from,” he said.
Former premier Simon Chang (張善政), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, thanked Cheng Wen-tsan for his contributions, but said that the city is still plagued by traffic congestion, an inadequate public transportation system, low-quality public infrastructure, fire safety issues and a high crime rate.
The All Pass Tickets should be available for all forms of public transportation that link Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, including Taiwan Railways Administration, Airport MRT and bus services, Chang said.
“The race for Taoyuan mayor should not be seen as a competition between political parties,” Chang said, adding that “people should judge who would make a good mayor.“
Legislator Lai Hsiang-ling (賴香伶), the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) candidate, touted her five years of experience as director of the Taipei Department of Labor, saying that she is the only candidate without political baggage.
Lai said she sympathizes with former legislator Cheng Pao-ching (鄭寶清), who left the DPP and is running in Taoyuan as an independent, for the injustice he faced in the DPP primary.
“Are we really going to allow the DPP to continue governing in Taoyuan?” Lai asked.
Cheng Pao-ching promised to help young people become homeowners, give elderly people an annual allowance of NT$10,000, offer free school lunches and provide collateral-free loans to young entrepreneurs.
Cheng Pao-ching cast the election as a vote on democracy.
“Nobody accused President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of betrayal when she left the KMT [sic] and joined the DPP,” Cheng Pao-ching said. “Do we have to alternate between the KMT and the DPP without an alternative? Taoyuan is the pioneer of democracy. Let us sound the trumpet for democracy.”
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