Taiwan Railway posts record ridership in 1st year after incorporation

Taipei, Jan. 14 (CNA) Taiwan Railway Corp. (TRC) reported its highest ridership in history in 2024, its first year as a state-owned business, but posted losses that exceeded its losses in its final year as a government agency.

Taiwan Railway had average daily ridership of about 647,700 in 2024, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, while passenger revenue rose NT$701 million (US$21.18 million) to NT$17.4 billion, Taiwan Railway President Feng Hui-sheng (馮輝昇) said at a news conference Monday.

The company also recorded revenue of NT$46.4 billion generated by businesses outside its core transportation services, Feng said.

The revenue posted by those businesses, such as bento boxes, package tours, and property management, rose 9.3 percent from 2023, according to Feng.

The rounded ridership figure for 2024 surpassed the previous high of 646,990 registered in 2019, before railway services were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, company data showed.

Despite the rebounding ridership numbers, the company posted losses of around NT$12 billion in 2024, higher than the losses the organization posted as the Taiwan Railways Administration in 2023, according to Feng.

Among the factors cited by Feng for the higher losses was a strong earthquake on April 3, 2024, which caused serious damage to its tracks and facilities in eastern Taiwan and the closure of a section in Hualien County.

A 4-percent salary hike introduced at the beginning of 2024, two electricity rate hikes, financial obligations to meet pension fund requirements, and three typhoons were also listed as reasons behind the company's higher losses.

But TRC Chairman Du Wei (杜微) said the company was still on course to have a positive cash flow by 2026 and turn a profit by 2028.

One option for increasing revenues is increasing ticket prices, which have stayed the same since 1995.

Du said the company's board of directors will meet after the Lunar New Year holiday to review a proposal to raise train ticket prices by an average of at 3 percent.