More Trains Added to Ease Commute on Election Day|疏運返鄉投票人潮 11/23起全台增開5班次

With elections coming up on the 24 November, to facilitate voters to return home to vote, Taiwan Railways Administration announced that, starting November 23, there will be five additional trains running on the main routes across Taiwan. However, the eastern line will only receive one additional train, leading many to speculate whether this is due to a shortage of drivers.


Many are gathered at the ticket office of the Hualien train station to enquire about the availability of tickets for trains running through the station around November 24, the date of the local elections. Many have heard that there will be only one additional train on November 23 on TRA's eastern line, which is the No. 138 Tze-Chiang Limited Express train. Many who couldn't get their hands on a ticket wondered if the TRA is facing a shortage of train drivers.

They should hire more staff as soon as possible in order to add more trains. This will make the life of tourists easier.

Of course this affects us. (The TRA) is not placing two drivers per train. So when we see it from afar,if there's only one driver in the train raises our concern about the train's safety. So some of us might not dare to get on the train. This policy has to change.

The TRA said that, after the recent adjustment of train schedules, an additional 82 trains were added to different routes during holidays. And since the election day falls on a Saturday, the five added trains running from the 23rd to 25th will bring the total number of additional trains to 87 on that day, and that the scheduling is not affected by an alleged shortage of drivers.

There have already been 82 additional trains on regular holidays and weekends. On the Friday, Saturday and Sunday surrounding the local elections, we added another train on the eastern line. Therefore our capacity and manpower is not affected by the lack of dual drivers.

The number of added trains during this year's local elections is considerably less than the additional 124 trains in the 2012 Presidential Election or the additional 97 trains in the 2014 local elections. In order to encourage more young voters to return to their home to vote, many colleges have set up shuttles to help these youngster commute. However, so far, there have been only about a dozen students who signed up in the Hualien area.