Taipei Joint Bus System - Routes - Irregular Numberings

Irregular Numberings

• Beside ordinary routes, for a short period of time, there were also special routes making use of "medium-sized air-conditioned buses". These buses went into service on July 1, 1976，and their route numbers were preceded with the word "中"or "Medium", such as 中1 and 中2. After September 6, 1979, these routes were reverted to ordinary routes, and were renamed with a first digit of "5" or "6."
• In the past, numbers such as 4, which sounds like the word "die" (死) in Chinese, and the number 13, which is unlucky in Western culture, were not used as route numbers. Even today, 4 is not used as the first digit of route names with three digits. While 13 is still never used as a route number on ordinary routes, there are routes named "red 13" and "green 13" (紅13, 綠13) on MRT shuttle buses.
• While the number 8 has positive connotations, it also refers to the historical Eighth Route Army. Due to these political reasons, 8 was not used as a route number, and 8 was never used as the first digit in three-digit route names. In route-names with two digits, 8 was first used in the 1980s as a first digit in route 80. Later on, after a county-controlled bus system was established，8, 88, and 8## bus route numbers appeared. Also, a MRT shuttle bus is numbered "綠8" or "Green 8."
• As it connotes the 228 incident, the number 228 has never been used as a route number.