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200 trains estimated to be cut daily from Sept

200 trains estimated to be cut daily from Sept

200 trains estimated to be cut daily from Sept

If they take leaves from September as prescribed by a new legislation that forbids working for more than six days in a row, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) train drivers estimated Wednesday that at least 200 trains will have to be cut from TRA’s daily service.

The new legislation, which comes into force on August 1, will impact traditionally understaffed industrial sectors, including bus and train service sectors, forcing them to make changes to employees’ workload and working schedules.

Currently the TRA has 1,244 train drivers, reports said.

Reasonable reserve personnel is 10 percent of the total staff, but that of the TRA’s is shy of 1 percent, which makes the national train operator stretched for manpower during weekends and long holidays, reports said.

In a regular internal meeting, TRA train drivers said that under the longtime understaffed circumstances, they have been maintaining normal operation of trains by changing shifts and moving vacations, but after August 1, the old practice will be illegal.

The TRA must cut down on train dispatches, and the government must attach importance to the longtime issue of TRA’s train driver shortage.

The train drivers’ union said it hoped the TRA will improve the manpower shortage issue by reducing the number of trains as soon as possible as they plan to take legal leaves from September, when estimated 200 trains might have to be cut from TRA’s daily service of 900 trains.

The TRA said it had originally planned to reduce the daily number of trains in October, to cut down on freight trains and low-usage passenger trains. Under the current circumstances, the train operator said it will make use of 46 supervisors who has train driving experience to pitch in to maintain regular shifts in August and September.