The other day I saw a bus driver’s little bird, and I’m not talking about his chicken.
I was sitting quietly looking out the window when I started hearing some chirping. When we stopped at a light the chirping sounded louder. I saw the bus driver hunched over his wheel reaching out for something. It was his pet budgie. The guy had brought his bird to work. It sat in a little cage on the flat part of the dash in front of the wheel. The driver was OBVIOUSLY fond of the creature and would stop to talk and play with it at every light. I guess it helped him through the long lonely day.
The plastic EZ card is prone to bend or even break if you exert too much pressure on it. Some of the older buses have that red strip on the ceiling for you to press. I wouldn’t press my EZ card on that. The trusty old key is better.
Taipei bus riders should expect a longer wait starting this week, according to the Central Daily News. Ever since the SARS outbreak, passenger numbers have fallen by 30 to 40%. Some bus companies that are already in the red are scaling down bus service to save operation costs. Alas, another casualty of the epidemic.
Red 32: Goes from the Minquan W. Road station to Nangang. Good drivers and nice new buses. The route is pretty straightforward, with only one detour through the domestic airport. The buses are well lighted so I can read at night. It seems to have a lot of buses so there is not a long wait.
620: Shihlin to Nangang. Disgruntled drivers and old rickety buses. The route is the only saving grace for this line. It travels in a nice curved line through the busiest part of Neihu. One strange thing is that instead of paying once when you get on and once when you get off, if you travel that far, you pay twice when you get off. The buses are poorly lit, even on the rare occasions that the driver turns the inside lights on. The driver will more often than not start driving when I get halfway on the bus.
645: From Tianmu to Nangang. Mostly good drivers and decent buses. This line hires a lot of women drivers, who do a good job. The lighting inside the bus could be brighter but is not bad. The route has too many turns and twists to make it comfortable. The stop into the Tri-services hospital is particularly stomach-turning, with a steep downhill run followed by a sharp turn. Uphill can be just as bad if the driver lets the front wheels leave the road.
306: Mostly good drivers and decent buses. Runs down Nanjing E. Road.
Brown 9: Mostly good drivers and decent buses. Runs down Nanjing E. Road. Kind of turns around a lot in Neihu.
280: Tianmu to Gongguan. Usually good drivers, bad buses. Not a straightforward route.
285: Tianmu to Dunhua S. Road. Usually good driver, buses not bad. Always crowded. Pretty straight route.
606: Tianmu to Gongguan. Usually good drivers, buses not bad. Pretty straightforward route.
(The opinions espressed above are blah blah blah and not necessarily yadda yadda yadda and so forth and so on and like that.)
Fabulous work Richard, fabulous. We need more informative posts like this.
Personally, I find the MRT drivers from Mucha Station to Zhongshan Junior High School excellent. They drive at a steady speed, never start until all the passengers are aboard, and keep their vehicles very clean.
Just noticed something new recently. Nowadays, almost every bus company requires its drivers to display their photo ID above the windshield. Now some buses have gone a step further (208). The name of the bus driver is conspicuously displayed on a license plate-like sign in the middle of the back of the bus, so everyone behind the bus can see who’s at the wheel. Makes drivers behave properly I’d say. Hope the others will follow suit.
Last year I could use my Easy Card to ride the MRT and transfer to a bus within 2 hours for 0 charge. After the new year I noticed that after transfering to the bus from the MRT, the Easy Card charges 7NT. Anybody else notice this? Know the reason?
[quote=“WorkingVaca”]No more free bus ride with MRT ride:
Last year I could use my Easy Card to ride the MRT and transfer to a bus within 2 hours for 0 charge. After the new year I noticed that after transfering to the bus from the MRT, the Easy Card charges 7NT. Anybody else notice this? Know the reason?[/quote]You also get 8NT or so taken off when you take the MRT after a bus, so it all works out in the end.
[quote=“Big Fluffy Matthew”][quote=“WorkingVaca”]No more free bus ride with MRT ride:
Last year I could use my Easy Card to ride the MRT and transfer to a bus within 2 hours for 0 charge. After the new year I noticed that after transfering to the bus from the MRT, the Easy Card charges 7NT. Anybody else notice this? Know the reason?[/quote]You also get 8NT or so taken off when you take the MRT after a bus, so it all works out in the end.[/quote]
Cool! Didn’t know that. I’ll pay attention next time.
Some of the new 642 buses now have LCD TV screens…but they only show commercials. After a few stops they start repeating, so by the time I get off I’ve seen the same ones at least 4 times. I resent having ads shoved down my throat.
Why can’t they have news or weather somewhere in between the “American style” canned coffee and BenQ commercials? Then some people may actually pay attention and then the advertisers can get their money’s worth.
I’ve seen them, too (on the Red 2). Talk about a bombardment of commercials! What a waste of a new technology. They had similar TV screens installed on the MRT a year or two ago (stuck right on the windows, effectively blocking a big chunk of the view out the window), but discontinued it after the trial period.
Besides news and weather, they should also use them to showcase the local culture or introduce tourist destinations in Taiwan a la the travel shows on Knowledge Channel. Showing movie trailers is also a good idea. Anything but repeating the same Acer printer commercial over and over again.
I didn’t realize there were so many poor foreigners in Taipei. God, now I know why we have such a negative image as being cheap. Its you crummy bus riding bastards that are screwin’ up for the rest of us.
*don’t forget. celebrate black history momf! yo yo yo homeeeez
Frugality is a virtue here in the East. If anything, a foreigner taking a bus is a positive image, much more so than a foreigner being chauffeured around in a Mercedes that doubleparks at will. But to me, taking the bus in Taipei has nothing to do with being frugal or cheap. It’s just so damn convenient. Try it, you just might get used to it.
I like my scooter, but the transit system is often more useful. Does anyone know of a service (in english, hopefully) that gives me a map with routes and bus numbers? I find it hard to get from Panchaio to Shulin by bus. Its often easier to catch the train at the Taipei Rail station.
19 Nt is a good deal, but not convenient.
thanks
Smashy
Hey, speaking of information about bus routes… I was wondering if anybody knew of a comprehensive list of bus routes or bus guide or something. If it’s Chinese, that’s okay. I bought that English one from Caves for 100NT, but it’s a few years old and lots of routes have disappeared/changed or added.
