The Taipei MRT’s newly completed Songshan Line is an important addition to the capital’s transportation network, as it provides more transfer options, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said at the line’s inauguration ceremony yesterday.
Under construction since 2006, the line was originally scheduled to open last year, but was held up by the discovery of a Qing Dynasty-period archeological site near the line’s Beimen Station, Taipei’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Hau and other dignitaries yesterday toured displays of the discovered artifacts within Beimen Station, before stepping into an MRT train for a ride to the line’s Songshan terminal station.
Photo: CNA
“To maximize the ease of transferring between lines, Taipei’s MRT system was designed around three horizontal and vertical lines, with Songshan the final horizontal line,” Hau said, adding that with the opening, the city’s core MRT network is now completed.
With the exception of the airport MRT line being constructed by the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (台灣高鐵) to connect Taipei Main Station to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, all new lines called for in city plans would boast only a “medium level” passenger capacity, a step below the “high level” capacity of most of Taipei’s current lines, the department said.
Meanwhile, Hau clarified earlier remarks suggesting that Taipei independent mayoral candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) winning the Nov. 29 election would lead to chaos in plans for the development of Greater Taipei’s public transportation system.
Photo: CNA
Hau, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), said that a non-KMT mayor might have trouble communicating effectively with the mayors of New Taipei City and Keelung, calling on all candidates to state clearly their position on planned future MRT lines linking the three cities.
The Songshan Line is an extension of the Xindian Line, running through eight stations, most of them parallel to Nanjing E Road: Ximen, Beimen, Zhongshan, Songjiang Nanjing, Nanjing Fuxing, Taipei Arena, Nanjing Sanmin and Songshan.
With the opening of the extension, trains will no longer run directly between the Xindian and Tamsui stations.
Four stations along the line connect with other MRT lines: Ximen to the Bannan Line, Zhongshan Station to the Tamsui-Xinyi Line, Songjiang Nanjing Station to the Zhonghe-Xinlu Line, the newly renamed Nanjing Fuxing Station (formerly Nanjing East Road Station) to the Wenhu Line, as well as Songshan Station to the Taiwan Railways Administration’s Songshan Station.
The Songshan Line is to start service at 6am today, allowing free travel for EasyCard holders for one month, the Taipei City government said.
Additional reporting by CNA
‘ASSERTIVE STEPS’: The report says that the US should enable Taiwan to construct asymmetric defense capabilities that would allow it to engage China on its own terms US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday declassified a report that casts the defense of Taiwan as critical to the Indo-Pacific strategy of checking China’s ascent, Bloomberg reported yesterday. “US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific” has governed the US’ strategic response to China since Trump approved it in February 2018, Bloomberg reported, citing a statement by US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien. “Beijing is increasingly pressuring Indo-Pacific nations to subordinate their freedom and sovereignty to a ‘common destiny’ envisioned by the Chinese Communist Party [CCP],” O’Brien was cited as saying. The report assumes that China would “take increasingly assertive steps to compel unification
SECRET OUT: Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung yesterday accidentally revealed that the infections occurred at the ministry’s Taoyuan General Hospital The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported the fifth COVID-19 case in a cluster infection at a Taoyuan hospital, where four other medical workers were confirmed to have been infected over the past week. The latest case is a nurse who had tested negative on Tuesday last week, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, told a news conference. However, on Thursday, she developed symptoms, such as nasal congestion and a cough, and a second test yesterday found that she was infected, Chen said. She is the head nurse of a ward where two
PILLARS OF DEMOCRACY: US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft posted online after the virtual meeting that Taiwan should be able to share its successes in global venues President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft yesterday held a virtual meeting, during which Tsai described Taiwan as a “force for good” that deserves a place on the world stage, while Craft reaffirmed Washington’s support for Taiwan’s international participation. The virtual talk was held at about 11am, after Craft’s trip to Taiwan was abruptly canceled. She had been scheduled to meet with Tsai in person at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday morning as part of a three-day visit to Taiwan. On Tuesday, the US Department of State canceled all of its planned trips, citing a need
‘CONTAINED’: The CECC is not considering locking down the hospital where the infections were detected, as their source has been found, Chen Shih-chung said The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday reported one new domestic COVID-19 case, a doctor at a hospital in northern Taiwan where three other medical workers were confirmed to have the disease over the past week. The new case — No. 856 — is a doctor who had treated a COVID-19 patient together with case No. 838, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. Case No. 838, confirmed as a locally infected COVID-19 case on Tuesday, was the first case in the hospital cluster, and later infected his partner, who is a nurse at the same
RSS