At the Cabinet's weekly meeting today, Premier Jiang Yi-huah commended the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) for a string of recent achievements produced by its public transport initiatives.
Under a public road transportation development project (2010-2012), the MOTC reported, local and central governments worked together to replace aging buses, keep remote area routes running despite budget cuts, add more low-floor buses to expand elderly and disabled access, and install card machines that read multiple types of transit passes. For these and other results, the MOTC was ranked by the International Association of Public Transport as first in the Asia-Pacific region and fifth worldwide in the Political Commitment category.
Premier Jiang said raising the public transport market share to 30 percent by 2025 is a challenging goal. He instructed the MOTC to work closely with other ministries and local governments when implementing the next-phase project (2013-2016) for upgrading public road transport. Under that initiative, software and hardware equipment will be enhanced to improve service in every city and county, and hopefully set Taiwan on its way toward meeting the market share goal.
The premier said the habit of riding public transportation should begin at a young age. Effective programs and thoughtful designs can cultivate this habit in future generations. Buses had been unpopular in the past because passengers had no access to real-time arrival information, but now that this technology is available in Taiwan, its use should be expanded. Jiang said the MOTC can woo passengers back by using convenient electronic fare collection systems, multi-pass card readers and real-time information systems. Since public transport is a lifestyle choice influenced by culture and personal values, the MOTC can include heartwarming stories in its campaigns to convey the message that public transportation is faster, inexpensive and better for the environment.