Lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday passed a motion to freeze ticket price hikes for train services to the east coast until Hualien County fully recovers from the devastating earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale last month.
The committee was scheduled to review Taiwan Railway Corp’s (TRC) planned increase in ticket prices, which have not been adjusted for nearly 30 years.
The price increase would range from 35.62 to 44.52 percent for a reasonable return on investment of between 3 and 5 percent, the TRC said in a report it submitted to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times
The ministry asked the railway operator to submit more detailed analyses of the data and said it would resume further discussions in the second half of this year.
The motion was proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chien-pin (黃建賓), who represents constituencies in Taitung County.
Residents on the east coast depend heavily on the railway system, which has many problems, Huang said in the Transportation Committee meeting, adding that it would be unfair to east coast residents if prices are raised before these problems are resolved.
The TRC’s plan to raise the price came at a bad time, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Lin Kuo-cheng (林國成) said.
“The Tourism Administration has rolled out plans to boost tourism in Hualien, while the TRC wants to raise the ticket prices. They should take the disasters in Hualien and Taitung caused by the earthquakes into account and not raise the ticket prices for now,” Lin said.
Special subsidies should be given to residents of Hualien and Taitung Counties affected by the earthquake when they use the railway system, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) said, adding that this would give the TRC some room to adjust the pricing scheme.
The quality and capacity of train services to the east coast have been enhanced, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Allen Hu (胡湘麟) said, but agreed with the motion to freeze the price hike for east coast residents.
In other news, to boost local tourism after the earthquake, Taiwan International Ports Corp said it would waive passenger service fees and port area cleaning and maintenance fees for international cruise ships docking at the Port of Hualien from April 25 to Dec. 31.
This new measure, as well as other existing ones, are expected to increase the willingness of cruise ships to dock in Hualien and enhance the local economy, it said.
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