A detract switch incident that occurred early yesterday morning caused the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC, 台灣高鐵) to cancel two trains leaving Taipei Station, affecting 128 train services.
Two northbound trains and five southbound trains were also delayed because of the mishap. The high speed rail station in Taipei was not able to open for service all day yesterday. Trains were only allowed to operate between Banciao (板橋) and Tsoying (左營).
THSRC spokesperson Ted Chia (賈先德) said yesterday the accident occurred when a maintenance train car was about to return to Taipei Station.
“The maintenance personnel were supposed to get authorization from the control center before they drove through the railway switch. However, the train moved on without securing the authorization first, which led to the detract switch incident,” he said, adding that a thorough investigation would be conducted later.
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