Faced with a surge of passenger complaints about jolts and noises during train rides, the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) scrambled to reassure the public, saying that it had identified the malfunctioning parts and will negotiate with a domestic supplier whose wagons failed to meet quality requirements.
"By the end of this year, the situation will be improved," said TRA secretary general Chen Fong-nan (
According to the TRA, experts found that worn-out bogies, steering gears wedged beneath the wagons, were the source of vibration and clatter. Passengers experience bouncing when the gear and the carriage vibrate at the same frequency, but Chen contended that a bumpy ride only occurs between 90kph and 100kph.
To allay public concerns, the administration will initiate public bidding on the components next month to revamp 400 carriages for the Tzuchiang Express (自強號), the fastest and most-used train class. The officials said that the purchase package will total over NT$30 million and the bogie replacement project will take over a year.
The disputed carriages have been in operation since 1996. Eleven years after the NT$7.2 billion purchase of contestable rail products from foreign manufacturers, including Hyundai Precision & Industry from South Korea, GEC Alstom from France and Union Carriage & Wagon from South Africa, the administration cannot demand the manufacturers repair the trains because the contracts were long over.
Dogged by criticism since then, the TRA had vowed to step up quality control. The TRA said it plans to withdraw its agreement for vehicle renovation with Lo Chen Fa Ironworks (
The Kaohsiung-based company delivered 39 wagons to the administration a year ago, and these carriages now run on the Chukuang Express (
The TRA accused the manufacturer of poor quality and expressed concerns over the company's financial situation. "We are not sure if they can deliver the goods on time when their balance book is bleeding red ink," Chen said.
The TRA decided to accept bids for the remaining 35 carriages from other contractors, both domestic and foreign.
The company denied the TRA's accusations, saying that their previous production for 45 diesel trains now operate smoothly in the country's east rail line.
According to company general manager Chen Chin-hsuan (
"Another manufacturer would need to spend a considerable time on studying the train model and technical complexity, an arduous task we already undertook. New bidding will only delay the whole project. This will not help our passengers as the administration wishes," he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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