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Temblor rattles Taipei's MRT, cripples cellphones

The Taipei City mass rapid transit system was severely hit by yesterday's earthquake, with service suspended for several hours.

The entire system was shut down entirely shortly after the earthquake struck, in accordance with company procedure in the event of earthquakes measuring above a four on the Richter scale.

Service on all lines except the Mucha line was restored at 5:30pm. Service on the Mucha line from Hsinhai Station to the Taipei Zoo was restored at 6pm, with the remaining sections of the line up and running at 7:30pm.

Railway lines were reportedly clear but services were instructed to proceed at a slow speed until all lines could be confirmed clear, according to officials at the Ministry of Transportation and Communication's emergency center.

The Sun Yat-sen Expressway that loops past the front of the Grand Hotel in Taipei buckled under the force of the earthquake and traffic was being rerouted "indefinitely" as of press time last night, a police officer told the Taipei Times.

Traffic was stopped on the Yuanshan Bridge -- which links downtown Taipei to the northern areas of Shihlin, Tienmu and Tachih -- after cracks were discovered in the bridge.

Officials said the bridge would still be useable and that work to strengthen the old structure was already under way.

Meanwhile, several million mobile phone users in the greater Taipei area were left without service for at least 30 minutes yesterday afternoon when callers jammed networks immediately after the earthquake.

"Too many people wanted to make calls right after the earthquake and overloaded the system with phone traffic," said Chen Huei-yen (陳惠燕), chief official at the mobile phone department of Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信).

The breakdown left many users panicked.

"I tried to call my wife who was at home alone with our newborn baby, but the mobile phone network was busy or gave no signal and it made me very nervous," said Wang Jie-yuan (王傑元) a passenger at Sung shan Airport.

International calls also surged.

"Between 3pm and 5pm, the nation's outbound international call traffic doubled," said Hsu An-ling (徐安玲), Chunghwa's public relations manager.

"Many people called relatives abroad to tell them they were safe."

Meanwhile, the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park has not reported any damage, according to the Hsinchu County police.

The police said that power supplies to the industrial park remained normal after the magnitude 6.8 earthquake.

The temblor registered an intensity of 4 in Hsinchu.

The Industrial Development Bureau reported that none of the industrial zones in western Taiwan were damaged, while the industrial zones in eastern Taiwan had not reported their situation as of press time last night.
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