Department of Transportation

The Taipei Public Transportation Office (hereafter refers to as the Office) has provided the scheduled arrival time of final buses at some key bus stops on 10 bus routes since June 13, 2013. The trial service has won positive feedback since it was launched as about 97% of the buses arrived at the key bus stops punctually. For better final bus service at night, 20 bus routes will be included in the trial service so the service will be available on a total of 30 bus routes and 434 key bus stops. Passengers will have a safer and more convenient ride on bus at night.
The Real-Time Bus Information System has been set up to display bus information on all bus routes in Taipei City. Passengers can access to the “estimated arrival time” at every bus stop through smart bus stops, website, mobile phone and telephone, and would not feel panic without knowing when buses will arrive. Now every day the average number of users accessing to the information exceeds 2,100,000, indicating that the bus information service is not only a popular but also an important transportation service to Taipei citizens.
As most of the final buses in Taipei City are operated at night, for the safety reason at night, the Office has added the “final bus” information to the Real-Time Bus Information System since October 2012. When the final bus departs at each bus stop, on the “estimated arrival time” after the bus stop name shows the information, ”Final Bus Departed”. This reminds people that the final bus has departed. Considering that most of the final buses are operated at night and the traffic is not as busy as that at day time, the Office then scheduled the arrival time of final buses by referring to the arrival time data collected by the Real-Time Bus Information System, and the average of final bus arrival time.
In Taipei City, the distance from one bus stop to the next is short, and the traffic status varies on different roads and intersections. It is difficult to provide accurate estimated bus arrival time at each bus stop. Therefore, the Office only provided schedule bus arrival time at key bus stops (eg. MRT stations, bus stations or busy bus stops). The Office announced that in addition to previously available 10 bus routes (including Bus 20, Bus Zone 38, Bus 224, Bus 232 Secondary, Bus 605, Bus 915, Bus Red 19, Bus Blue 25, Bus Brown 3 and Bus Brown 20), the scheduled bus arrival time of final buses will be available on 20 more bus routes (including Buses 9, 68, 230, 513, 624, 629, 644, 648, 682, 756, 912, 212 Night, City Minibus 7, Bus Red 10, Bus Red 15, Bus Red 32, Bus Brown 6, Bus Brown 7, Bus Green 1, Bus Green 11.) The number of bus stops with scheduled arrival time occupies about 30% of total bus stops. The final bus will arrive at the bus stops on time. If the bus arrives earlier, it will wait for a while, but no more than 5 minutes. People can check the schedule of the buses listed above beforehand at key bus stops, and arrive at bus stops earlier than the schedule arrival time. The traveling time from one key bus stop to the next is 4 minutes in average, and is not longer than 10 minutes. For the bus stops with no scheduled arrival time, people can estimate the approximate arrival time based on the scheduled arrival time of your nearest key bus stop. So you will know about when to go to the bus stop to avoid missing the final buses.
The schedule of final buses at key bus stops on 30 bus routes are available on the website of the Office (Website: www.pto.taipei.gov.tw) and the real-time bus information 5284 website (Website: 5284.taipei.gov.tw). Alternatively, people can dial Taipei City 1999 hotline (Residents from other cities please dial 02-2720-8889). Any feedback can be made by dialing 1999 or Bus Service Complaint Line 02-2729-1181. The Office will review the feedback and decide whether to expand the service to more bus routes for better bus service quality in Taipei City.

2013-10-09