Taiwan Railways sees record ridership for Mid-Autumn Festival

台鐵中秋乘客量創歷史新高

About 3 million took trains over four-day period


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan Railway Corporation (TRC) reported a record-breaking 812,000 passengers on Friday (Sept. 13), even though there was no long holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

In response to public complaints about six additional workdays last year, Taiwan has reduced the number of make-up days to one this year. As a result, the Mid-Autumn Festival falls on a single day this year, Tuesday (Sept. 17).

Over the four days from Friday until Monday (Sept. 16), about 3 million passengers took the train. This marked a 9% increase compared to the same period last year, per CNA.

The TRC reported a 12% increase in revenue, with ticket sales reaching NT$266 million during the period, according to Yahoo News. This translates to an average daily revenue of NT$66.6 million.

The increased revenue is largely due to the railway's expanded capacity, made possible by the introduction of new trains. To accommodate greater demand, the TRC deployed 211 million seat kilometers, averaging 52.78 million seat kilometers per day.

This represents a 315,000-seat-kilometer increase compared to the previous year. A seat kilometer measures a vehicle's passenger capacity by multiplying the number of seats by the distance traveled, according to National Statistics.

The TRC expressed satisfaction with the smooth operation of Mid-Autumn Festival transportation. It added it had organized standby trains and staff to handle increased demand on return trips between Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei, as well as between Taitung, Hualien, and Taipei.