Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) on Monday reported record-high ridership last year — its first year as a state-owned business — but losses widened compared with its final year as a government agency.
Average daily ridership last year reached about 647,700 last year, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, while ticketing revenue increased by NT$701 million (US$21.26 million) to NT$17.4 billion, TRC president Feng Hui-sheng (馮輝昇) told a news conference.
The company also recorded revenue of NT$46.4 billion from businesses outside its core transportation services, Feng said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Revenue from these businesses, including sales of boxed lunches, package tours and property management, rose 9.3 percent from a year earlier, Feng said.
The rounded ridership figure for last year surpassed the previous high of 646,990 registered in 2019, before railway services were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, company data showed.
Despite the rebound in ridership, the company posted losses of about NT$12 billion last year, he said, citing a major earthquake on April 3, which seriously damaged its tracks and facilities in eastern Taiwan and the closure of a section in Hualien County, as a major factor.
A 4 percent salary increase introduced at the beginning of last year, two electricity rate hikes, financial obligations to meet pension fund requirements and three typhoons also contributed to the higher losses, he said.
However, TRC chairman Du Wei (杜微) said the company was still on course to have a positive cash flow by next year and turn a profit by 2028.
One option for boosting revenues is increasing ticket prices, which have stayed the same since 1995, he said.
Du said the company’s board of directors is to meet after the Lunar New Year holiday to review a proposal to raise railway ticket prices by an average of 3 percent.
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