Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday the Maokong Gondola would be closed until civil engineers could confirm its safety after mud slides brought by Super Typhoon Jangmi eroded the ground beneath a support pillar.
The cable car was closed at 3pm yesterday and will not open for at least a month while the evaluation is conducted by a team that will be selected by the city government, Hau told a press conference.
The decision was an about-face from the city government’s announcement on Monday that the cable car would continue to operate in spite of protests from local residents and city councilors.
PHOTO: CNA
Hau yesterday said the system was safe, but that the evaluation would be conducted to ease public anxiety.
“The city government’s departments had concluded that the gondola was safe, but apparently our evaluation result did not resolve public concerns. In order to ease the worries of residents, we decided to suspend the gondola’s operations,” he said.
Hau said the city government would invite civil engineers to conduct a thorough inspection on the stability of the system. Service will not resume until the results are in.
When asked whether any city officials would resign over the incident, Hau declined to respond, but said the city government had closed the cable car because it “feels the public’s pain.”
Taipei City councilors across party lines questioned Hau’s guarantee that the gondola was safe, saying the torrential rains had left a 2.5m-deep hole a few meters from a support pillar on a cliff.
Jangmi caused mud slides in Muzha (木柵) on Monday, one of which occurred directly under the gondola’s Corner 2 station — one of two service stations where passengers do not board. Part of a cliff bearing two support pillars crumbled in the storm.
Standing inside the hole beneath the pillar during an inspection yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilors Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄) and Chou Bo-ya (周柏雅) scooped up loose soil and trash such as plastic bags, saying it was ridiculous to call the pillar stable.
“How can this foundation be called stable and solid when rocks keep falling from the cliff? The city government is lying,” Chuang said.
Taipei City Secretariat Director Yang Hsi-an (楊錫安) said the system was “absolutely safe.”
The pillars are set into igneous rock beneath the surface, so the stability of the pillars is not affected if top soil erodes, Yang said.
In addition, more than 340 sensors placed in the gondola system’s support pillars ensure that the system will shut down automatically if any of the pillars tilt, he said.
“We have told the mayor that the system is fine and we continue to believe that the system is fine. Operations were halted to ease public concern,” he said.
Yang said suspending operations would cost the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) more than NT$45 million (US$1.4 million) for a month.
TRTC, the operator of the gondola, will refund any tickets purchased in advance.
Three Taiwanese airlines have prohibited passengers from packing Bluetooth earbuds and their charger cases in checked luggage. EVA Air and Uni Air said that Bluetooth earbuds and charger cases are categorized as portable electronic devices, which should be switched off if they are placed in checked luggage based on international aviation safety regulations. They must not be in standby or sleep mode. However, as charging would continue when earbuds are placed in the charger cases, which would contravene international aviation regulations, their cases must be carried as hand luggage, they said. Tigerair Taiwan said that earbud charger cases are equipped
Foreign travelers entering Taiwan on a short layover via Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are receiving NT$600 gift vouchers from yesterday, the Tourism Administration said, adding that it hopes the incentive would boost tourism consumption at the airport. The program, which allows travelers holding non-Taiwan passports who enter the country during a layover of up to 24 hours to claim a voucher, aims to promote attractions at the airport, the agency said in a statement on Friday. To participate, travelers must sign up on the campaign Web site, the agency said. They can then present their passport and boarding pass for their connecting international
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS