TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Clean, organized, on time, and on track is an everyday scene at a Taipei MRT station. The Taipei MRT has provided a high-quality experience for all since its launch. Since the opening of the first MRT line in Taiwan in 1996, the cumulative passenger volume of the Taipei MRT has exceeded 10 billion passengers. It is the most successful MRT system in Taiwan.
It is so convenient not just because of the MRT system itself. The bus stops outside the MRT stations create a complete solution that extends in all directions to make up for the shortcomings of the MRT itself. The bus system has long played an essential role in the Taipei and New Taipei areas, even long before the completion of the MRT. And now combining the different forms of transportation in the city has made getting around convenient and cost-friendly.
"First, the MRT matches with the buses. We can connect the dots and develop outwards," said Yeh Chia-wen, deputy director of the Taipei MRT Business Planning Office. "In addition to the buses, shared vehicles and Ubikes are all very popular now," he went on. "So for the public, we hope that you can utilize these public transportations until the last mile, when you move from home to your destination."
"We have bus stops around all MRT stations in Taipei, and there are shuttle buses with planned MRT routes that provide related services," said Guo Chien-chen, division chief of the Public Transportation Division, Taipei City Public Transportation. There are also discounts between the MRT and buses.
"If you transfer from the MRT to a bus or from a bus to the MRT, within an hour, there is a half-price discount. Such incentives encourage more (commuters) to take public transportations," he added. With the success of the Taipei MRT, under the government's forward-looking infrastructure plan, Taiwan has entered a new era of rail engineering development, expanding into eight counties and cities.
According to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' assessments, the total budget for the 18 lines is NT1.1 trillion. In Kaohsiung City, the budget accounted for NT238 billion.
In 2020, it was expected that Kaohsiung's existing red and orange lines would have a daily transportation volume of 970,000 passengers. But in 2019, even before the epidemic outbreak, the transportation volume only reached 180,000 passengers per day. And after the outbreak, even less, which leaves many questioning, is a further expansion necessary?
"Kaohsiung is unique because it receives more subsidies from the central government, so it has more lines for its MRT compared to other counties and cities," Kurt Lee, a transportation scholar. But they also face the same problem. The use of public transportations is low. It is very difficult for residents to move from private vehicles to public transport.
In fact, a majority of people in Taiwan still prefer to ride motorcycles, and many are not as accustomed to using public transportation. According to statistics from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, in 2020, the average utilization rate of public transportation in Taiwan was 16%, and only 5.5% in Tainan. Taichung's usage rate was only 8.6%, lower than the country's average.
"For metropolitan areas like Taipei and New Taipei, there was a high demand for public buses in the first place," Lee added.
Taiwan is narrow and densely populated, suitable for developing an MRT system. However, apart from the Taipei and New Taipei City area, there is still a long way to go in cultivating the public's habit of using public transportation.
