Department of Transportation

History of Taipei City Bus

In the beginning, Taipei City Bus system was operated by Taipei City Government. From 1969, Taipei City Government opened more opportunities to privately-owned companies for operating buses, including: Shin-shin Bus, Air Bus, Da-nan Bus, and Kuang-hua Bus. They were jointly managed by Department of Transportation, Taipei City Government.

However, tickets issued by each company became overly complicated and unsuitable for common use. The obsolete ticketing system had made bus traveling under different companies extremely cumbersome.

Up until 1976, only a few private companies and the Metropolitan Bus Company were managed by Taipei City Government.

Nevertheless, the fare system of one-section route was different among different bus services. The bus routes were badly organized: they either overlapped or were inadequate to meet passenger demand.

In order to promote traveling efficiency, the Taipei Joint Bus System Preparation Committee was established in 1976. The organization was founded to manage all affairs related to the Taipei City Bus System, and to integrate bus routes with bus numbers, bus ticketing, and fares.

On April 30, 1977, the Taipei City Bus System was joint-operated initially. At that time, apart from those aforementioned, there were five private bus companies:, Chung-shing Bus, Zhinan Bus, Taipei Bus, San-chung Bus, and Capital Bus (San-chung City Bus was the original name).

From 1980s to 1990s, many bus routes governed by Directorate General Highways, M.O.T.C. were re-numbered or organized into a joint operation by the Taipei Bus System. Apart from cooperating with affiliated bus companies in Taipei City, the Taipei Bus System expanded its service to Taipei County. Department of Transportation, Taipei City Government primarily supervises joint bus services, and was not designated to oversee transportation demands, bus route designations, or bus stop installments in Taipei County. This has made management rather ineffective. In light of such, as soon as the Transportation Bureau of Taipei County was established, joint buses that operate mostly in Taipei County were assigned to the Transportation Bureau instead. (Bus routes of Taipei County Government).

Current Status of Taipei Bus System
There are fourteen bus transportation agencies, most of them run by one company, with a few jointly operated.

Each bus operating agency participating in the joint alliance formed a committee overseeing a joint-venture management center. Operationally, the stops and waiting areas are shared among the individual operators. While ticketing and fare structures are universal within the alliance, each operator remains sovereign with its own structure, assets, revenue vehicles, and legal liabilities. Financially, all the revenue generated are collected to the management then distributed to operating agencies to meet their individual expenditure needs.