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.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS