Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Director-General Tu Wei (杜微) said that ticket prices for railway train services could increase in the second half of next year, in the wake of the agency being restructured as a state-run company on Jan. 1.
Tu, who is set to chair the planned Taiwan Railways Corp, spoke to the media on Saturday and said the company’s board is expected to discuss a plan to raise ticket fares during the first quarter of next year.
If the plan is approved, ticket prices would be adjusted in the second half of next year at the earliest, Tu said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
TRA ticket fares have remained unchanged for 28 years.
The fare rate for each passenger is calculated on a per-kilometer basis, and the local train rate is NT$1.46 (US$0.05) per kilometer, while the Chu-Kuang Express train rate is NT$1.75 per kilometer and the Tze-Chiang Express train rate is NT$2.27 per kilometer, the TRA said.
An earlier TRA proposal for a price hike aimed for a 1 percent rate of return, with the per-kilometer rate for local trains to be increased by 27 percent to NT$1.86, while fares for Chu-Kuang Express trains would go up 15 percent to NT$2.02 and Tze-Chiang Express trains’ fares would increase by 11 percent to NT$2.53.
Tu said that after corporatization, the impact of fare adjustments on the new company’s operation would be small, as according to the statutes governing the establishment of the corporation, the government must cover any losses caused by policies.
It means that if the government decides not to implement fare increases to boost the firm’s revenue, it has to subsidize the difference between the proposed fare increase and the original fare, Tu said.
He was certain train services would run as normal during the Lunar New Year holiday, Tu said, adding that a widely-reported personnel shortage in key roles is to be addressed before the holiday in February next year.
There have been reports saying that more than 1,000 TRA employees could retire or resign in the first six months after corporatization to claim voluntary retirement and resignation incentives with a maximum of seven months’ salary available, leaving the company understaffed.
As of early last month, 978 of the company’s 16,326 employees had applied to quit in the first half of next year, including 374 who perform key duties as drivers, maintenance and repair workers, deputy station masters, train conductors and dispatchers, TRA statistics showed.
The TRA has revised its forecast for the number of employees expected to retire or resign during the period from 1,300 to 1,100, Tu said.
Train services would not be affected as the TRA has trained a number of new employees to fill key job vacancies before the end of next month, he added.
The TRA has also recruited more than 800 employees through the government’s special railway examination and many others through senior and junior civil-service examinations, as well as the TRA’s own recruitment process, he said, adding that the new employees would come onboard in February.
Tu said he believes it is possible to turn the agency’s operating performance around, as it would be more flexible, efficient and independent after its restructuring from a government agency into a state-run company.
TRA’s main short-term debt of about NT$170 billion is to be transferred to a special purpose fund established by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, and the losses incurred due to the execution of government policies are to be covered by the government, he said.
Taiwan Railways Corp would need to take out a bank loan of NT$5 billion in the period following its formation, but that is expected to be fully paid back in 2026 when the company starts to make profit, Tu said.
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
RSS