Taipei Maokong Gondola to roll out increased fares from March 3

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) Visitors taking a ride on Maokong Gondola between Taipei Zoo and the mountainous area of Maokong, popular with tourists, will have to pay more for a ride from March 3, the cable car operator said Thursday.

The four-stop cable car system between Taipei Metro's Taipei Zoo on the Brown Line and Maokong Station in the mountains in southern Taipei currently charges each ride by the number of stops a passenger takes, according to the operator Taipei Rapid Transit Corp. (TRTC).

The full fare for a ride to the second stop is NT$70 (US$2.13), to the third stop it is N$100, and NT$120 for the full 4.03 kilometer-ride, according to the Maokong Gondola website.

TRTC has decided to raise the fare to NT$180 for a single ride, regardless of the distance and NT$300 for a day pass, the company which also operates Taipei Metro said in a statement Thursday.

However, existing concessions, such as the NT$50 single ride for Taipei residents, will not be affected, the company said.

The decision was made to simplify the current fare structure, and also rising inflation, the minimum wage hike and growing energy bills that pushed operating costs for the 17-year-old service higher, according to the statement.

In addition, an extra NT$50 charge will be introduced for all passengers who choose to take a glass-bottom cable car, because each car can only carry five people, instead of the standard eight, and those cars are more expensive to maintain, the company said.

Such differential pricing is already adopted by similar cable car services in South Korea and Hong Kong, the company added.

To encourage visitors to venture beyond Maokong, Maokong Gondola ticket holders can also take two Taipei City bus services -- Maokong Right and Maokong Left for free, the company said.

On average, the new fare stands at around NT$45 per km, which TRTC said is far lower than the 1.88-km Sun Moon Lake Ropeway, which costs NT$101 per km, and the NT$144 per km charged by Hong Kong's Ngong Ping Cable Car service.