Taipei bus

Taipei Joint Bus System

Ikarus low-floor bus operated by Metropolitan Transit Company
Founded	1977
Locale	Taiwan
Service area	Taipei, New Taipei (limited service to Keelung City and Taoyuan City)
Service type	bus, tour bus
Hubs	Taipei Main Station, Gongguan Station
Fuel type	Diesel, some electric
Operator	15 Civil operation bus transports
Chief executive	New Taipei City Government

The Taipei Joint Bus System (Chinese: 台北聯營公車) is a bus system that serves the greater metropolitan area of Taipei, Taiwan. It is administered by the Taipei Joint Bus Service Management Center, the Taipei City Traffic Bureau, and the New Taipei City Traffic Bureau (formerly Taipei County Traffic Bureau), and is operated by 15 private agencies. It includes the bus systems of Taipei City and New Taipei City, and has a coordinated numbering and fare system.

The system is jointly operated by 15 individual bus transit agencies, sharing the same fare structure, ticketing process, and route numbering. Although most routes are operated by a single agency, there are routes co-operated by two agencies.

The 15 agencies are:

Fu He Bus (Chinese: 福和客運) was previously part of the system, but left in 2009.

Each bus operating agency participating in the joint alliance formed a committee overseeing a joint-venture management center. The alliance shares stops and waiting areas, and operates universal ticketing and fare structures. All revenue generated is collected by the management center and is then distributed to individual operators to meet their expenditure needs. Each operator retains control of its own structure, assets, revenue vehicles, and legal liabilities.

Furthermore, Taipei City Traffic Bureau makes a bi-annual service quality evaluation of each operating agency. This evaluation is used as a reference with regard to an operator's application for new routes and, the public transit subsidization. New Taipei City Traffic Bureau evaluates New Taipei-administered operators separately.

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Before 1976, each bus operator, including ones operated by the Taipei City Bus Administration (now Metropolitan Transit Company), had their own fare structure and tickets. Paper tickets could not be used between different operators, making transfers between routes inconvenient. Bus routes were individually planned by the operators, often creating areas that had either too much or not enough service.

To increase service efficiency, the "Committee on the Establishment of Taipei City Public and Private Bus Joint Service" was formed in 1976, unifying route numbering, fare structures and ticketing, and establishing a unified organization administering joint service businesses. On April 30, 1977, the joint service began with 33 routes. Later the same year, 97 routes were added to the joint system. The number of operators increased from five (four private operators and TCBA) to ten.