Department of Transportation

The Kuang-Hua Bus Company purchased 10 low-floor buses, 5 of which were for Bus 247 and 2 of which were for each of Bus 240 and Bus 246. The remaining one low-floor bus was for Bus 268. These buses were to be officially operated on June 25, 2016. Since Taipei City Government strived to promote low-floor bus service, the numbers of low-floor buses and operating bus routes have been increasing significantly up to 2,597 (including 107 hybrid electric low-floor buses). This number accounted for 73.9% of total number of Taipei city buses. The service network of low-floor buses was thus well established. For details about bus routes, please visit on 5284 Bus Information Website).
The design of the 10 new low-floor buses was ergonomic, specifically for the elderly, people with mobility difficulty, pregnant women and general public. To assist in people with visual impairment and hearing loss, and tourists who are unfamiliar with bus routes, these buses were installed with bus stop annunciation devices, digital billboard, and automatic annunciation system outside the bus. New bus route posters, which were more readable, were posted on bus. The “Fare charged when ON/OFF bus” signal panel were labeled with English for foreigners. On the front of the buses was LED digital panel, which clearly shows bus route number with an arrow showing current direction of the bus. These buses were also installed with real-time bus information system for passengers to look up estimated bus arrival time.
On each of these buses, there were two wheelchair seats with safety belt to immobilize wheelchair’s four wheels. This could keep wheelchairs stable and non-slippery. An emergency reporting button was accessible at each wheelchair seat. For any emergency events, passenger could talk to bus drivers by simply pressing down the button. This was a further protection of passenger’s safety. For better bus-riding convenience for the elderly, people with mobility difficulty, pregnant women and children, seats on the left front rows when you get on from the rear door were priority seats shown in red. About 1/3 of the total seats on each of the buses were priority seats.

2016-08-04