The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) said yesterday that it would have to cancel several train services between Nov. 7 and Nov. 9 as a large number of cabin staff will be taking a national qualification examination for railway personnel that weekend.
The nation’s largest railway service operator said that 340 train drivers and 409 cabin crew chiefs are scheduled to take the examination, which is important for staff members applying for promotion.
Many TRA workers decided to take the exam this time around as the Examination Yuan has not held it for three years, it said.
The administration said that 465 cargo trains would be canceled during the three days. A total of 190 passenger trains would also be canceled, including 142 commuter trains and 58 express trains.
An estimated 60,000 passengers would be affected by the temporary change in schedule, the TRA said.
Passengers scheduled to take TRA trains on Nov. 8, a Saturday, would be affected the most, as 18 express trains and 90 commuter trains would be canceled on that day alone.
On Nov. 8, the administration would also expand the interval between commuter trains running between Hsinchu and Jhongli (中壢) from an average of 20 minutes to 28 minutes.
The administration said a majority of the trains to be canceled are not those operating during peak hours, and it hoped to minimize any inconvenience for passengers.
Meanwhile, the administration is also reducing some of the less-utilized long-distance train services, such as those from Chidu (七堵) and Pingtung.
The administration has also submitted the plan to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications so that the ministry has time to coordinate with other transportation departments and help transport passengers during the three days.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS