KMRT light rail ridership drops 50% after charging fares

The China Post
Date: November 8, 2017
By: Wang Shwu-feng and Evelyn Kao

TAIPEI (CNA) – Ridership on the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT) system’s light

Commuters interact with staff onboard the city’s light rail. Ridership on the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit system’s light rail line dropped by half to about 3,500 riders a day in the first week after the line started charging fares on Nov. 1. (CNA)

rail line dropped by half to about 3,500 riders a day in the first week after the line started charging fares on Nov. 1.

Travel on the light rail line, the first of its kind in Taiwan, had been free since it opened in October 2015.

But with a sharp increase in the number of passengers following the extension of the line this year, the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Bureau decided to charge fares starting Nov. 1.

In the six months prior to Nov. 1, ridership on the light rail line averaged 7,000 passengers per day on weekdays and nearly 20,000 on weekends and holidays, said Shih Yao-cheng (石耀誠), the head of the Department of Public Affairs of Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. (KRTC), which has been commissioned by the bureau to operate the line.    [FULL  STORY]

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