At 7:43pm, the Taipei MRT's entire Neihu Line had to be shut down after breaking down a fifth time. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said the company completed passenger evacuations by 8:04pm.
Though service between 〝Jiannan Station and Taipei Zoo Station resumed at 9:05pm, the TRTC was still investigating the cause of yesterday's second breakdown at press time.
Earlier in the day, the Neihu-Muzha MRT Line experienced a fourth system shutdown after a network system malfunction at Dahu Park Station.
It was the second network system malfunction in two weeks for the problematic line following the first incident on Aug. 6. The line*s service was suspended at 10:35am after the malfunction was detected.
The 405 passengers trapped in three trains that stopped between stations were evacuated by 10:52am. Service was resumed at 12:10pm after the system was fixed and a trial run was conducted.
It was the fourth system shutdown since the Neihu stretch of the line began operations on July 4.
When asked to comment on the breakdown after system inspections began during the weekend, Tan said the city government had demanded that the system*s builder, Bombardier Inc, improve the stability of the network system and fix other problems.
※We will ask Bombardier to speed up the inspection process and improve the line's stability as soon as possible,§ he said yesterday at Taipei City Hall.
The weekly system inspections require more time than originally planned, so operation of the line will be delayed until 11am on Saturday and Sunday, Tan said.
The line will be suspended from 6am to 11am for those two days, with free shuttle buses running between the line*s stations until 12pm, he said.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the city government announced the service suspension ahead of time in response to complaints passengers made about the short notice last week.
The city government only announced on Friday afternoon last week that services for Saturday and Sunday would be delayed.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MEGGIE LU
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