Legislature passes law on violence, threats against railway workers

Taipei, Dec. 23 (CNA) The Legislature on Tuesday passed amendments to the Railway Act that impose criminal penalties for using violence, coercion or threats to obstruct railway personnel while they are carrying out their duties.

Under the new amendment, such offenses are punishable by up to three years in prison and a fine of up to NT$300,000.

If the obstruction results in death, offenders face life imprisonment or a prison term of more than seven years, while cases resulting in serious injury carry terms of three to 10 years.

The revisions were modeled on provisions addressing emergency room violence under the Medical Care Act, with the aim of strengthening on-duty safety protections for railway personnel.

The amended law also authorizes railway operators to refuse service when there is a risk that passengers could obstruct railway personnel through violence, coercion or threats.

Before the government-run Taiwan Railways Administration became corporatized on Jan. 1, 2024, such violence could be prosecuted under Article 135 of the Criminal Code punishing threats or violence against a public official.

Since the beginning of 2024, that clause no longer applied to new hires, necessitating more direct provisions to crack down on violence against railway employees. There have been 14 cases of such violence so far this year.

The amendments also raised fines to deter improper profit-seeking involving train tickets.

Those who resell train tickets at higher prices or exchange them for improper profits will face fines ranging from 10 to 50 times the ticket fare, based on the number of tickets involved.

The amended law also imposes fines of NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 on privately run and state-owned railway operators that fail to take necessary safety measures or do not effectively train and manage their personnel.

The Legislative Yuan's Transportation Committee had earlier completed a joint review of amendment proposals submitted by lawmakers across party lines, passing them at the committee stage without reserving any provisions or requiring cross-party negotiations.

The amendments passed their third reading at the Legislative Yuan plenary session on Tuesday without objections.