Yesterday was a bad day for Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) after services on both the Wenhu and Bannan Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) lines had to be temporarily suspended because of separate incidents.
The first incident occurred at 8:06am when an unexpected power interruption occurred at a power substation in Muzha.
The power shortage caused four trains to pause between Da-an and Zhongxiao Fuxing stations, as well as Xinhai and Linguang stations of the Wenhu line, trapping passengers inside.
PHOTO: CNA
As many as 19 other trains were also effected, TRTC spokesman Chao Hsiung-fei (趙雄飛) told reporters.
“Service was suspended on the Muzha section of the line, but we were still able to keep the rest of the line running via manual operation,” he said.
Since the incident happened during the morning rush hour, more than 1,700 passengers were affected, Chao said, apologizing for the inconvenience.
TRTC quickly dispatched shuttle buses, but this didn’t help because the buses became stuck in traffic for more than 30 minutes.
“We dispatched buses immediately after the situation occurred, but since we quickly brought everything back to normal by 8:33am, the buses did not arrive until everything was fixed,” Chao said.
“It was very inconvenient — the MRT shut down, the shuttle buses arrived late and all the taxis were full,” one Wenhu Line passenger told reporters. “I was late for work.”
“[TRTC] staffers at Liuzhangli Station only told us that the service was suspended, but could not say how long the suspension would last or what they intended to do for the passengers. We were left there on our own,” another passenger said.
“I am very upset — I was late for work, I had to take a half day off, but all I got was a ‘sorry’ from the TRTC,” the passenger said.
Service was partially disrupted on the Bannan Line after a 26-year-old man jumped onto the tracks at Shandao Temple station in the afternoon.
The interruption lasted from 3:12pm to 4pm as Taipei Fire Department personnel worked to remove the man from the tracks.
The man was conscious when he was rescued and suffered only minor injuries. He was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.
At press time it was still unclear why he jumped onto the tracks.
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant