The city-county merger of Kaohsiung last December has brought a positive impact on the city's underused MRT services, boosting the daily ridership from 120,000 to nearly 130,000 within just three months. And the biggest growth is found in the eastern section of the MRT Orange Line, at more than 10%.

Kaohsiung City's Fengshan District was part of the Kaohsiung County before the city and the county merged.

Since the merger, Fengshan resident Ms. Pan has been taking the MRT to work to save time.

Commuters that frequent the eastern section of the Orange Line, meanwhile, have noticed that the number of passengers has risen in recent months.

According to Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit statistics, daily ridership has increased by 7% to 129,000 passengers since the merger compared with the same period one year ago.

Ridership on the eastern section of the Orange Line, which serves what was previously Kaohsiung County, has increased by more than 10%.

The Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corporation says that the number of passengers using monthly passes or stored-value cards has increased, which means that residents of the former Kaohsiung County are taking advantage of the new MRT shuttle bus services.

KRTC has set a daily ridership goal of 200,000, and the city government is assessing new shuttle bus routes to develop potential passenger pools.