New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday.
TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007.
Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said.
Photo: Lin Cheng-hung, Taipei Times
Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said.
Since 2023, the company said it has invested NT$453 million (US$13.7 million) in redesigning the software system used by the gates.
Once implemented, the new system would allow people to swipe in and out of stations using phones with Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay, it added.
The company is also working with Line Pay, JKOS Network, iPass Money, PX Pay Plus, EasyWallet, icash Pay, Taiwan Pay, Taishin Pay and others to allow people to swipe QR codes for faster boarding and alighting.
A total of 1,396 ticketing gates across 117 stations would be replaced with the new software, the TRTC said.
As of November last year, the company had already updated 639 ticketing gates, and is expected to complete upgrades by March, giving the company a grace period of six months to test the system and ensure it is compliant with the Payment Card Industry Security Standard.
The company said it plans to replace primary components to extend the overall service life of ticketing gates, increase maintenance efficacy and avoid situations in which maintenance is impossible due to a lack of components.
Separately, Taipei City Councilor Lin Liang-chun (林亮君) on Tuesday said that the Taipei City Government should review public transportation ticketing systems and allow automatic top-ups such of payment methods.
Lin said the public has long complained that buses in Taipei and New Taipei City were less than convenient, as the auto top-up function allegedly does not work on ticketing systems, or did not allow payment by QR code.
Lin said 150,000 people rode buses using cobranded cards, and about 4,000 experienced difficulty paying because the systems did not recognize the cards’ auto top-up functions.
Buses in Taipei and New Taipei City also lack the newer ticket verification systems employed by Kaohsiung and Taichung, Lin said, adding that upon further investigation, it was because buses in Taipei and New Taipei City did not have a camera installed on their verification system and was unable to scan QR codes.
Taipei Department of Transportation General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said that the municipal government is in talks with credit card companies to allow auto top-ups for EasyCards, iPasses and icash cards, and such systems could be implemented as early as next year.
The Taipei City Government plans to install systems with cameras that would allow the scanning of QR codes for payment, which would help foster willingness to ride on buses for travel to and from metro stations, Liu said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and