First train for Kaohsiung's new MRT system unveiled

The first three-car train for the mass rapid transit (MRT) system currently under construction in Kaohsiung was unveiled yesterday at a ceremony held at a Siemens plant in Vienna.

Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Chou Li-liang (周禮良) and Sepp Rieder, a deputy mayor of Vienna, jointly presided over the ceremony to mark the building of the first of Kaohsiung's MRT trains.

The train will be transported to Cologne in Germany for tests before being delivered to Kaohsiung in October, said Volker Kefer, president of Siemens Transportation Business Division.

The Kaohsiung MRT Bureau has ordered 42 of the trains from Siemens. The first batch will be used on the R3 line connecting the Hsiaokang International Airport and Santuo Road beginning in October next year, according to Chou, who coincidentally was the director-general of the Kaohsiung MRT Bureau before assuming his post at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in February this year.

Addressing the ceremony, Rieder lauded Siemens' outstanding expertise and technology in building electrical engineering systems for MRT trains, which have helped create jobs and a better economy for the Austrian capital of Vienna.

For his part, Kefer praised Kaohsiung as a growing and promising city. He particularly offered his admiration for Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who was the mayor of Kaohsiung City prior to Feb. 1, and was the prime mover behind the development of the Kaohsiung MRT project.

The Siemens-built MRT cars -- in white and green livery and boasting modern interior decor featuring LED display panels and see-through seat partition walls -- are each capable of carrying 750 people.