No Public Transport discounts for Foreigners - let's get this fixed

Recently, there’s been renewed discussion about how even long-time APRC holders can’t get discount HSR tickets. Not for having disabilities, not for being senior citizens.

I did some research, and found that in 2017 the MOTC provided the reason. They said that the Control Yuan concluded that because:

Japan, Hong Kong, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries did not provide preferential fares for Taiwanese to take their public transportation

preferential fares for foreign residents were cancelled.

This doesn’t match my experience. In many places, anyone who lives there can get the discount ticket regardless of nationality.

So, let’s prove that Taiwanese can get Seniors or Disability discounts.

Add information for your country/city/state here:

Then we can have a clear response to the past arguments about ‘reciprocity’.

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I cant find an English evidence for my home country…

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Non-English is fine, IMO :slight_smile: If it’s complicated you could add a description in the column instead.

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Btw. in a few years European Union will have EU wide disability card (still in testing):

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Maybe should include Taichung bus too. Taichung bus is free for all Taichung residents (Taichung household registration) the first 10km. and after that will cost maximum of 10NT. However, if you are a foreigner even though you live in Taichung you have to pay for the bus every time and no discount. Only exception is if you are an student here (likely a loophole as it’s mostly meant for Taiwanese students from other cities studying in Taichung and they just forgot about international students) or you are married to a Republic of China National who has Taichung Household Registration.

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Can you add a note about it down the bottom of the document?

I think once we get the ‘unarguable’ ones like the elderly and disabled fixed, the ones like Taichung bus and Maokong gondola should come more easily.

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Also Lin Family garden entrance fee as well. Free for only Repubic of China Senior Citizens, foreign seniors have to pay regular price.

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This is true. I live nearby :slight_smile: Unfortunately, different responsible government department so we’d have to deal with that one separately.

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Is there any issue with them? I received the resident discount last year without any issues after showing my ARC

Ah, it’s fixed? good.

Could be that it I just got lucky - maybe someone else went there recently and can share their experiences?

Which ID did you show?

EDIT. Never mind…I can’t read without some morning coffee apparently.

Is that true? I live in Taichung, and honestly I’ve only used the bus twice (on the same day) in the 4 years I’ve been here - I’m sure I never paid (but maybe I did!). Certainly, my daughter did not pay as a student

I wonder if a lot of this is due to the fact that long-term Taiwanese who live in these countries tend to get nationality so get the discount automatically that way meaning offering it to Taiwanese ID’d people generally means non-long term residents?

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The change was made was last year in January if I recall correctly.

Edit:
I checked, it was changed from free to everyone (using EasyCard) to the current policy starting January 1st 2021.

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I added a link for the senior railcard in the UK. You have to pay for it, but it’s the same price whether you’re British, a resident, or just a visitor, and it provides discounts on rail travel all through the UK.

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@slawa In Germany it’s up to the City / Verkehrsverbund, right?

For seniors, yes. But so far I looked it was quite homogeneous.

I guess it was pre-2021 when I last used the bus.

Thanks @lunlan for the updated info

AFAIK the EU principles forbid discrimination based on nationality:

Discrimination on the grounds of nationality has always been forbidden by the EU treaties […]

However, discrimination based on residence is still possible unless it results in (indirect) discrimination based on nationality:

2.4.3. “Residence” as indirect discrimination on grounds of nationality
Article 18 (1) only prohibits discrimination on grounds of nationality; whereas – as already
explained above – the main (if not only) problem is discrimination on grounds of residence.
Nowhere in primary law is “residence” independently mentioned as a prohibited criterion of discrimination. “Residence” can only be covered by Article 18 if discrimination on grounds of residence
amounts to (indirect) discrimination on grounds of nationality

Thus, in all EU member states, this kind of price differentiation should only occur based on residence. Not based on nationality.

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