The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday that abnormalities detected in switch trips during inspections of the high speed rail tracks a week ago occurred as a result of human error and faulty equipment.
"And since the incident did not happen on the main railway track, it is not recognized as an accident," said MOTC vice minister Ho Nuan-hsuen (
Ho said the required two-week test runs have been conducted as planned and are scheduled to be completed by Wednesday.
Regarding the 33 major defects brought up by the high speed rail's inspection committee, Ho said 24 of them have been corrected.
Ho said the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp has yet to submit a report detailing a one-month accident-free record, a report on the stability of the railway tracks and the corporation's ticketing plan.
These reports must be turned in by next week. A meeting will be held on Sunday next week to decide whether or not the high speed rail can be allowed to operate.
While Ho said earlier this month that the ministry will adopt the definitions listed in the Railway Law (
Even though inspectors conditionally approved the launch of the high speed rail last week, the ministry has been holding periodic meetings with the company to make sure it will meet requirements and launch on schedule.
Samuel Lin (林鵬良), deputy chief operations officer of THSRC's Railway Operation Division, also explained to the press yesterday the cause of incident.
He said the incident in Tsoying (
And because the train driver started operating the train without waiting for confirmation from the control center, the first bogie of the train hit and damaged the switching trips.
"The accident shows that crews need to be more familiar with standardized operating procedures," Lin said.
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