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Editorial: Taipei's credibility left hanging

Since its launch earlier this month, the Maokong Gondola has become one long headache for Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌).

The signs were bad from day one, when shortly after the grand opening an embarrassed Hau and predecessor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) were left hanging in mid-air for 10 minutes by a faulty door lock before bad weather caused several more shutdowns later in the day.

Following its inauspicious opening, the system has been hurt by a catalog of problems, including a lightning strike that caused a five-hour shutdown and last Saturday's breakdown that left passengers cooking for up to two hours in the cars as Taipei sweltered through its hottest July day in more than 80 years.

All major infrastructure projects suffer from teething problems, but aside from the technical difficulties, more worrying things were overlooked or ignored during the planning, construction and commissioning of the system.

Anyone who has sat for just 30 seconds in an automobile without air-conditioning on a hot summer's day in this country knows how naive those who chose the gondola design must have been to omit this necessity.

Air conditioning and proper ventilation of the cabins should have been the first priority.

Even more interesting is the emergence of news that the system was opened to the public before its "final acceptance," or the point where the manufacturer's guarantee period comes into effect.

The New Construction Department fast-tracked the project as a "major transportation facility," originally hoping to finish it before Ma left office in February, enabling him to add another star to his municipal report card, but the cable car's manufacturers would not allow it to shorten the system's test-run period.

This suggests that in its haste to get the system operating, the city government rushed things -- and may have cut corners -- while using the paying public as guinea pigs.

This theory was lent credibility by city government Secretariat Deputy Director Yang Hsi-an (楊錫安), who said on Wednesday that "running the system now gives us the chance to discover any issues that we would otherwise be unable to notice."

The decision to halt operations each Monday proves that the city government was too hasty in its efforts to get the system up and running.

The project was all but complete before Hau became mayor and so he cannot be held completely responsible for the situation. Nevertheless, Hau decided to stick with most of Ma's backroom staff when he assumed office, meaning that many of the people responsible for the cable car project remain in their well-paid jobs despite the stupidity that has ensued.

Hau can guarantee the safety of the system as often as he likes, but he cannot guarantee that more mishaps -- possibly serious -- will not occur.

Thankfully, no one has been injured. But there comes a point where someone must take responsibility for the fact that members of the public were exposed to unnecessary danger. The New Construction Department might be a good place to start.

As things stand, the flyers posted around the city promoting the cable car as "a new experience" remain accurate. One can only assume that the current shambles is not the kind of experience that the city government was hoping for.
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