The Taiwan Railways Administration says it will offer as few as 17 services along Taiwan’s busy west-coast rail lines over the Labor Day long weekend. That’s down from around 50 on a normal Saturday.
Services will be cut because of an upcoming strike by a train drivers labor union. The union said on Tuesday that most of its members will refuse to work overtime during the holiday in protest of the government’s push to corporatize the agency.
Fewer than 40 out of 1,200 drivers scheduled to work overtime on Labor Day say they are willing to work. The railway administration says that means in the worst-case scenario only 17 trains will be able to run on the west coast.
Cabinet spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng apologized to the public for any inconvenience caused by a possible suspension of service. But he says the government is committed to reforming the railway administration. Lo says the administration’s current rigid structure is hindering change. He says the government believes it can find a satisfactory solution in line with the expectations of the Taiwanese people.