It has been over a month after the launch of Taichung City’s main line bus services and the number of passengers has significantly increased. The Transportation Bureau of Taichung City Government expressed that “the numbers speak for themselves”. Formerly known as Route 701, Route 700 (Chongde Main Line) has an increase of 117%, doubling the original traffic volume; and Route 300 that has been transformed to Taiwan Boulevard Main Line also has an increase of 100,000 person/times in its monthly traffic volume. Not only have the six main line bus services received positive feedback from the public, but also other regions strive to implement a main line bus. The City Government will make continuous adjustments to provide all citizens optimal public transportation services.
Director General of Transportation Bureau Yeh Chao-Fu pointed out that the launch of Taichung’s first MRT line last year has opened a new page in the City’s transportation history. To optimize the City’s public transportation network with great convenience, the City has targeted the busiest bus routes – Fuxing Road, Zhongxing Road, Taiwan Boulevard, Zhongqing Road, Chongde Road and Beitun Road – to launch the main line bus scheme on July 1 this year. This transportation network that connects several important traffic nodes, including MRT Green Line, TRA Taichung Station, THSR Taichung Station, and Taichung International Airport, was launched over a month ago and the traffic volume continues to increase.
Director General Yeh expressed that the specially painted vehicles and stations based on the MRT line and the frequent shifts are the highlights of Taichung’s main line bus service. This has formed a public transportation network in the metropolitan areas of Taichung to facilitate citizens’ access to public transportation and to optimize the effect of “1+1 is bigger than 2”. According to the statistics, main line buses started to provide passengers with new transportation services starting from July 1 and the traffic volume has since then significantly increased. For example, the traffic volume of Route 200 (Zhongxing Main Line), Route 500 (Zhongqing Main Line) and Route 900 (Beitun Main Line) has an increase of over 12%, respectively; the traffic volume of Route 100 (Fuxing Main Line), Route 300 (Taiwan Boulevard Main Line) and Route 700 (Chongde Main Line) also doubled and reached over 117%. Passengers all expressed that “The frequent shifts of main lines buses make the commutation more convenient!”
Director Yeh further explained that the provision of bus services involves various aspects and the main line bus services have shown a good performance upon its launch so far. Director Yeh said that the Transportation Bureau thanks all communities for their advice and suggestions and will take their feedback into consideration to further improve the services. The on-time rate of Taichung’s main line bus is over 93% and, among them, Route 300 (Taiwan Boulevard Main Line) even reached 96% with a continuous increase. Moreover, the traffic volume also has a growth comparing with that before the adjustment, indicating a great success of the main line bus scheme. “Taichung is the nation’s first to proactively monitor the bus shifts from departing stations with a dynamic system!”
The Transportation Bureau emphasized that the City Government has requested all bus service operators to coach drivers on how to maintain the spacing with the previous and following shifts. Nevertheless, as some buses of main line routes also drive on all purpose roads, the overall traffic flow can affect the driving speed. Moreover, drivers may increase the stop time to assist passengers with difficulties in getting on or off the bus and this can affect the timing of arrival for intermediate stations. In the future, the City Government will continue to optimize relevant services and inform the passengers of the conditions and appreciate their cooperation and understanding.
Transportation Bureau expressed that, in regard to the access friendly main line bus routes, the City Government already requested bus service operators to provide barrier-free bus services. However, some bus service operators may experience difficulty in providing barrier-free buses at all time due to vehicle emergency issues or temporary scheduling needs, despite that the Transportation Bureau already requested them to use barrier-free vehicle properly. To reduce the probability of having a non-barrier-free bus on friendly main line bus route while enhancing the proportion of electric bus, Transportation Bureau is now encouraging bus service providers to submit applications to replace the current main line vehicles to low-floor electric bus according to the subsidy application process of Directorate General of Highways (DGH), Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Among all routes, 22 vehicles of Route 200 (Zhongxing Main Line) already received a subsidy from DGH; Route 305 which also operates on Taiwan Boulevard corridor, also received a subsidy for 16 vehicles. It is expected that the original vehicles of these routes will be successively replaced by electric vehicles next year to achieve the goal of having 100% electric vehicles as early as possible.
Director Yeh added that, upon the launch, the main line buses have shown a good performance so far and everyone has witnessed the increase in its traffic volume despite the epidemic situation. The City Government would therefore like to thank private groups and all communities’ attention to and suggestions for Taichung’s main line bus scheme. Transportation Bureau and bus service operators have been continuously making adjustments to the main line bus services since the launch in order to ameliorate the performance and to provide citizens with optimal transportation services. With respect to bus stops and relevant bus waiting facilities, as most of them are installed in front of private residences, Transportation Bureau will, in the consideration of local residents’ feedback and citizens’ needs for public transportation, continue to coordinate with local residents for further improvements in order to provide high-quality public transportation services.