Starting January of next year (2016), Taipei City bus fares will very likely be raised. Since Mayor Ko Wen-je took office, he has been tightening various benefits and discounts originally offered in Taipei City, and has now turned his attention to bus fares.
Recently, the “Taipei City Bus Operators’ Commercial Association” submitted a proposal to the Taipei City Government for a fare increase. Ko Wen-je is currently inclined to agree to an across-the-board increase in bus ticket prices. However, after the Director of Military Service Bureau advocated strongly, Ko agreed to extend the military and police discount ticket for only one year.
The city government team stated that by the end of the month, the proposal—which concerns livelihood goods and the rights of numerous commuters and students—will be formally submitted to the Taipei City Council for review, with implementation expected next year.
The Department of Transportation stated that the relevant case details and impact assessment are in final evaluation. The fare increase proposal is expected to be submitted to the city government meeting and council for review by the end of September, with implementation starting January of next year. The fare increase will not exceed NT$2.
Public Transportation Office Planning Division Chief Huang Hsin-hao stated that since bus fares have not been raised in four years, operators submitted this proposal. Additionally, after the military/police EasyCard name registration system launches on October 31, the usage of military/police discount tickets will be further reviewed. Currently, the bus operating fare per section is NT$17.3956, with a full fare of NT$15 per section, student/military/police discount fare of NT$12, and senior/disabled/children’s discount fare of NT$8.
Capital Bus Company General Manager Li Jian-wen said in an interview that in recent years, the company has massively introduced low-floor buses, established parking facilities, added personnel, plus rising raw material costs, all increasing operating costs. Bus operators hope the fare can be reasonably adjusted, proposing a one-section operating fare increase of at least NT$1.5 to NT$18.9, leaving the ticket price to be decided by the city government.
TN Commentary:
Living in Taipei is getting more and more expensive, but… the rising raw material costs that Capital Bus’s general manager mentioned—what does that have to do with “buses”? Modern people really love to throw around the phrase “raw material costs are rising.”
Additionally, Planning Division Chief Huang Hsin-hao originally included another statement, which I deleted and didn’t include here. He said the current operating fee subsidy is borne by the Taipei City Government, requiring NT$1.9 billion per year. The problem is that this fare increase proposal was initiated by operators, so it’s fundamentally unrelated to the government subsidy. I don’t know if Huang Hsin-hao’s purpose in mentioning this was simply to provide information, or to make people think that after the NT$2 increase, the government subsidy would decrease? No—TN currently cannot see the logical connection between the two.