The Executive Yuan yesterday announced measures to improve the safety and stability of the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) service and change its business model.
The government has pledged to reform the nation’s oldest and largest railway agency since the Taroko Express No. 408 derailment on April 2, which killed 49 people and injured 244.
In a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday which was attended by officials from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications; the Ministry of Finance; the National Development Council; the Public Construction Commission; the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration; and Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌)
《TAIPEI TIMES》 Cabinet pushes on TRA safety reform - 焦點 ltn.com.tw - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ltn.com.tw Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
TRA reform priority for new minister
FINANCIAL WOES: Wang Kwo-tsai said the top Executive Yuan and budget officials had agreed on a plan that would benefit passengers, the rail agency and its workers
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
Reform of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is his No. 1 priority, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday as he laid out eight key items that he aims to accomplish in the role.
Wang was appointed minister following the resignation of Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) after the Taroko Express No. 408 derailment on April 2 killed 49 people and injured 244.
“The Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the TRA will share the responsibility of reforming the agency to ensure the safety of the railway system,” Wang said, adding that the work would involve a lot of communication with union members.
The divine bovine
Even though beef is widely consumed in Taiwan, oxen and buffalo are still animals with spiritual significance and certain taboos
By Han Cheung / Staff reporter
Eating beef was once so taboo in Taiwanese society that a traditional idiom warned that doing so would damn one’s soul to hell. Old people also warned children that consuming beef would make them stupid.
The prohibition made sense when Taiwan was a predominantly agricultural society since oxen and buffalo were integral to farming, and people refrained from eating them out of respect just like they do with dogs today.
Some farmers still feel this way. In 2019, photographer Tsai Meng-hsing (蔡孟興) captured a tear-jerking moment when an old man kissed his long-time ox companion goodbye. The man had turned down multiple offers to sell the animal for meat, and finally decided to send him to a “retirement home” for bovines to live out its life peacefully.
Minister without portfolio named new Cabinet spokesman
02/18/2021 01:53 PM
Taiwan’s new Cabinet spokesperson Lo Ping-cheng. CNA file photo
Taipei, Feb. 18 (CNA) The Executive Yuan on Thursday named Minister without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) as the new Cabinet spokesman, three months after his predecessor resigned over a false comment he made that an award-winning restaurant was selling beef tainted with the animal feed additive ractopamine.
Lo will continue to serve concurrently as minister without portfolio in charge of overseeing interior affairs, judicial, national defense, diplomacy and social security issues, a post in which he has served since September 2017, according to the Executive Yuan.