Asia-Pacific News
Technical problems have high-speed rail running at a loss
Mar 12, 2007, 10:35 GMT
Taipei - Taiwan's high-speed rail has been losing money since it was launched in January due to technical problems, an official said on Monday.
Transport Minister Tsai Tui told parliament that in January and February the high-speed rail was earning 600 million Taiwan dollars (18 million US dollars) per month, 40 per cent less than the rail's one billion Taiwan dollars (30 million US dollars) monthly cost.
'There were several reasons for incurring the losses, including the line was only partially opened, there were only 19 round-trip services daily due to lack of train drivers, discount tickets to lure passengers and compensation for train delays,' he told parliament.
He expects the revenues to start picking up in April when the high-speed rail begins to increase train runs as newly-trained Taiwan drivers will join the fleet of foreign drivers.
Since its launch on January 5, the 345-kilometre high-speed rail built with Japanese technology has experienced technical trouble on a daily basis, causing delays and complaints from passengers.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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