Ministry tightens public commute rules TRAVEL: Eating and drinking onboard trains, highway buses, ships and planes are in general banned, while sales of standing-room tickets for trains have been suspended By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter Public commuters are to observe stricter disease prevention guidelines from now until June 8 after the Central Epidemic Command Center raised the alert level for COVID-19 following an increase in local cases, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. With the CECC reporting six local COVID-19 cases with unknown sources of infection, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said that airplane, ship, highway bus and train passengers are in general banned from eating and drinking onboard.