The number of high-speed rail passengers hit a record-high 73.03 million last year due to a strong recovery in railway travel following the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said yesterday.
The increase in demand for high-speed rail services translated to NT$49.8 billion (US$1.6 billion) in revenue last year, an all-time record, THSRC business senior vice president Calvin Yen (顏昭立) told reporters
Meanwhile, pretax net profit reached NT$9.7 billion, the highest since the high-speed rail company began operations in 2007.
Photo: CNA
Aside from commuters and business travelers, the high-speed rail operator attracted 4.02 million passengers last year who boarded for tourism purposes, Yen said.
In response to the robust growth in ridership, the company increaseed its weekly train services from 1,039 last year to 1,060 this year, he added.
“However, we have noticed that the average daily passenger volume during the Lunar New Year holiday was about 310,000, which has returned to normal,” he said.
Despite significant growth in passenger volume and revenue, the operational costs of high-speed rail services also increased last year, Yen said.
The system’s maintenance costs rose to NT$2.9 billion last year, up from NT$2.7 billion in 2022, while personnel costs jumped 19 percent to NT$6.2 billion last year, Yen said.
Taiwan Power Co’s electricity fee adjustment last year increased the company’s electricity expenses by NT$300 million annually.
The state-run power firm on Monday announced that an overall price hike is expected in April.
Asked whether the company is planning to raise ticket prices given the rising costs, Yen said that any adjustment in ticket price would require taking into account various factors as well as approval from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
“We would first assess how a ticket price adjustment could affect the public before making any proposal,” he said.
Any new discounts available to THSRC members would be to maximize revenue, rather than to reduce it, Yen said.
“While discounts might increase the number of passengers accessing the high-speed rail and ease the congestion in peak hours by moving some of the passengers to off-peak hours, there might be a decline in revenue if discounts do not lead to a significant rise in passengers,” Yen said, adding that it would review the discounts available to THSRC members.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS