UPDATED: NOPE:::The stupid, it burns: Gov't proposes charging more for foreigners on "tourist" rail lines

The Rift Valley, soon to be more expensive if your skin is the wrong color!

Updated: Apparently a high administration official has said that he will instruct MOTC that this is a bad idea

The Stupid. It Burns.

The minister recommended Taiwan Rail introduce business and tourism compartments that will be charged more expensive rates than average compartments.

The ministry is also considering to make international visitors pay a premium ticket price compared to domestic passengers if they take tourism rail lines that pass through Jiji (集集)Train Station in Nantou County, Pingxi (平溪) in New Taipei City, or Neiwan (內灣) Line and other branch lines.

Other routes included in MOTC tourist route assessments include the Eastern Line and South-link Line.

On all routes east of Taipei and on spur lines into the mountains, they will be screening your skin color and checking your visa. I can just imagine how this will work. If you are a SE Asian tourist traveling individually, you'll be checked, because they will assume you are a foreign laborer. If you are white, you'll be screened. If you are aborigine and heading to the east coast, they might ask for your papers -- a friend reporting having seen this in Taipei Station, where a pair of local indigenous people were stopped by the police and their papers asked for.

This is going to go over really well for the local non-Han population.

If they only mean special pre-paid train tickets for groups, it might be tolerable...

Like everything from water to electricity, train ticket prices need to go up. But this is simply a bad idea. Not only will it cause problems for the local foreigners, but it will also encourage two-tier payment systems at national parks and similar, something that was proposed a couple of years ago. It must be opposed.
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