MOTC readying for busy holiday for train travelers
ALL HANDS: Extra trains, on-platform turnarounds, and coordination between TRC and THSRC are all expected to help ease travel travails for the holiday
By Jonathan Chin / Staff writer, with CNA
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said more high-speed trains with non-reserved seating would run during the Double Ten National Day holiday.
The transport ministry is taking several measures to cushion ride conditions and seating capacity ahead of the holiday, officials said at a news conference at the ministry in Taipei.
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) has sold 80 percent of its reserved seat tickets for the holiday, 10 percent more than the figure during the Mid-Autumn Festival, when overcrowded trains drew complaints, they said.
A high-speed train stops at an unidentified station yesterday.
Photo : Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
Today, eight trains travelling from Taipei or Nangang to Taichung between 5pm and 9pm would each have eight carriages designated for non-reserved seating, Deputy Minister Wu Sheng-yuan (伍勝園) said.
The ministry is coordinating with Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) and THSRC to boost transport capacity during the holiday period, he said.
Command centers at Taipei Railway Station and Taichung High Speed Rail Station would oversee train traffic and advise passengers on whether they should take the TRC or THSRC, he said.
Designating more cars for non-reserved seating allows each train to accommodate 1,600 to 2,200 people, which should help bleed off seating pressure, Wu said.
THSRC president Bob Chen (陳惠裕) said that extra seating would be featured in two trains per hour during rush hour, and that trains are to park on the platform for rapid cleaning so they can return to ready status.
Turnaround checks on the platform, carried out under the control center’s direction, would ready trains in 12 minutes, an improvement from the regularly 60 minute process, he said.
THSRC has crowd control measures in place to separate passengers heading to reserved and non-reserved cars, and is fielding additional staff members to maintain orderliness, Chen said.
Despite the increase in reserved-seat ticket sales, THSRC expects an overall decrease in passenger volume for the National Day holidays, he said.
The forecast is that 290,000 to 330,000 passengers would take the high-speed trains today, while no more than 340,000 people would use the high-speed rail to go back to work, Chen said.
However, people travelling south for vacation are expected to join commuters going home from work during rush hour, resulting in surges in crowds, he said.
TRC president Feng Hui-sheng (馮輝昇) said the railway company would run 123 additional trains to absorb demand during the holiday period.
Eighty-five of the extra trains would run on the east coast, and 38 in the west, he said. A firework festival in Taitung is the reason for the larger number of trains on the east coast, he said.
The public is urged to consider taking the TRC during the holidays, Feng said, adding that new EMU900 trains can reduce the travel time of Taichung-to-Taipei direct trains to two hours, 10 minutes.
TRC railway stations are closer to cities and towns than high-speed rail stations, he added.
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