| 摘要: | 臺灣公營公路客運自日治時期的交通局營巴士營運(1933年)算起，至臺灣汽車客運股份有限公司結束客運業務(2001年)為止，一共歷經了69年，為臺灣公路運輸立下汗馬功勞。日治時期的局營巴士是為了配合鐵路營運之下的產物，在彌補鐵路運輸及收入方面貢獻非常大。戰後局營巴士被接收成為臺灣的省營公路客運，公路局成立後很明顯地將公路運輸與鐵路運輸完全分開，由本文探討可知局營巴士與公路局客運，兩者之間營運目的與方式的差異。公路局設立的目的本為扶持民營客運事業，以及規劃臺灣全島公路運輸政策為「幹線公營、支線民營」的方式達到偏鄉通市鎮、市鎮通都市的全島運輸網絡。
公路局班車不僅在縱貫南北的主要幹道上馳騁，也在民營客運運量不足時，肩負起地方支線運輸的使命，幾乎全臺每個角落都可以看到公路局班車的身影。對於戰後臺灣的建設與復原扮演重要的角色，雖然無可避免地與鐵路產生競爭的現象，但公路客運的機動性與橫向連結性卻是彌補了鐵路功能的不足，臺灣南北交通依賴公路客運比鐵路更深。
隨著臺灣經濟愈加發達，民眾對交通的需求日益增加，公營公路客運的營業規模雖然也愈加擴大，但礙於政府的財政狀況，始終無法對於交通運輸業做積極的投資。而民營客運方面也受限於路權取得困難，及不願經營偏鄉低乘載路線，使得公路局自始至終都沒有完成臺灣全島公路運輸網絡。社會經濟環境已然變化，政府卻墨守成規抱著路權不放手，而本身的運輸能力又不足，造成了兩個現象，機動車輛逐年倍增以及野雞車的興起。
經濟成長與公路發達，交通運輸卻無法與之配合，造成的影響是西部主要公路於民國50年代即顯得壅擠不堪，拓寬與新建公路趕不上車輛增加的速度。中山高速公路通車後，臺灣南北交通進入了一個新的里程，公營公路客運獨佔高速公路經營路權，逐漸將營運主力移至高速公路，也使得公營公路客運達到了營運的巔峰。但運量不足的情況如影隨形，面對野雞車的挑戰卻因政府的錯誤政策造成公營公路客運的巨大損失，且自用汽車增加的速度造成了高速公路每逢例假日即陷入嚴重堵塞，民眾視高速公路客運為畏途，轉向航空與鐵路運輸，造成公營公路客運的營收日益漸少，龐大的負債推著公營客運逐漸進入終章。
;Taiwan Public Highway Transportation Company had gone into service for 69 years, contributing a lot to Taiwan highway traffic and transportation. The history spanned from the year 1933, when State-owned Bus Line Company started its operation under Japanese rule, to the year 2011, when the operation of Taiwan Motor Transportation Company came to an end. In order to support the railway transportation, the State-owned Bus Line Company under Japanese rule had been set up, contributing a lot to the operation and the revenue. In the postwar period, the State-owned Bus Line Company had been taken over by Taiwan Highway Bureau, which obviously intended to separate the management of the highway transportation from that of the railway transportation. Based on my thesis, there appeared an obvious discrepancy in the business objectives and operation between the State-owned Bus Line Company and the Taiwan Highway Bureau. The objectives of the institution—the Taiwan Highway Bureau—was to support the Private Bus Line Company as well as to make the “state-owned main road / privately-owned country road” policy of Taiwan highway transportation, intending to make the whole-island transportation connection between the countries, towns and cities.
The operation route of the Taiwan Highway Bureau included not only the North-South thruway but also the regional routes in the countries. It was hard to ignore the Taiwan Highway Bureau Buses, which were literally around each corner of Taiwan. The Taiwan Highway Bureau played a crucial role in the establishment and recovery of Taiwan in the postwar period. Althrough it inevitably competed against the Taiwan Raiway Bureau, the former’s flexibility made up for the deficient supporting routes of the latter. Therefore, people relied more on the highway transportation than on that of the railway when they needed to travel from the north to the south of Taiwan.
With the rapid economic development in Taiwan, the need for transportation increased. However, due to the humble financial situation of the government, the Taiwan Highway Bureau couldn’t make an aggressive investment in traffic and transportation, in spite of its literal growth in operation. On the other hand, the Privately-owned Bus Line Company refused to run the low-occupancy route and the application for the operation route appeared quite tricky for private transportation companies. Therefore, the “state-owned main road / privately-owned country road” policy was never implemented. The social economic situation had changed, but the government which failed to offer enough transportation routes still held on to the power over route control, refusing to grant it to public access. All these reasons led to two results: the yearly increase of private vehicles and the rise of illegal Bus Line Companies.
Due to the economic growth, the highway development, but the flawed traffic and tranportation network, the main highways of the western Taiwan had become crowded since 1960s. The construction of road-widening and newly-built road couldn’t get up to speed on the increase of private vehicles. After Sun Yat-sen Freeway had come into service, the event became a milestone for the Taiwan North-South traffic and transportation history. Meanwhile, the Taiwan Highway Bureau Company dominated the power to run and focused the operation route on the Freeway, a policy which made the business reach a peak. However, three reasons result in the decline of the Taiwan Highway Bureau Company. The first reason was the flawed traffic and transportation network. Second, the wrong policy of dealing with illegal Bus Line Companies led to a huge financial loss. Third, the rapid increase of private vehicles made terrible traffic jam on the freeway during the holiday. People thus felt intimidated by traffic congestion and prefered to choose the air or railway transportation. In the end, the revenue of the Taiwan Highway Company decreased, and mounting debts doomed the company to closure. |
