With Taiwan accepting an increasing number of migrants and new immigrants from Southeast Asian countries, alerting public transport commuters in multiple languages during emergencies is a top priority, says the Taiwan Railways Administration.
According to official figures, the daily average passenger traffic at Taipei Station is around 460,000, while during weekends or festive periods the figure could be up to 600,000, United Daily News reported.
It is important to evacuate crowds of commuters in a prompt and orderly fashion, and keep migrants and new immigrants calm and informed of what it is going on in the case of emergencies.
The Railways Administration has already put its first multilingual emergency alert system under test, starting with Indonesian followed by Vietnamese, during a large-scale disaster drill held at Taipei’s main station in cooperation with the Taipei City Government in June.
Meanwhile, volunteers from Southeast Asian countries will be on duty during weekends at Taipei Station and Taoyuan Station, helping foreigners to look for lost items or missing persons.