Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) could reduce ticket prices for the MRT’s Muzha and Neihu lines after repeated malfunctions, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said yesterday.
Reduced prices could be one measure to make up for the troubles, Hau said, while promising to enhance emergency response measures so that no passengers are asked to walk along the MRT tracks again in the event of another breakdown.
“The most important thing is to rebuild the public’s trust in the Muzha and Neihu lines,” Hau said at Taipei City Hall yesterday, demanding that “TRTC and the Rapid Transit Systems Department handle the issues regarding the lines by prioritizing the needs of passengers.”
Trains on the two lines came to a stop on Friday afternoon after a power outage.
Approximately 700 passengers were forced to walk along the elevated rail lines to get back to station platforms from their trains, which had stopped between stations.
Hau’s promise to consider reducing prices came after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors slammed the city government over the MRT problems and urged it to cut ticket prices or offer free rides until the system is stabilized.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Chen Yi-chou (陳義洲) and a group of local borough chiefs from Neihu called on the TRTC to cut ticket prices by NT$5 to compensate for unreliability and poor service.
DPP Taipei City councilors Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) and Lee Wen-ying (李文英) condemned Hau and TRTC for treating passengers as “lab rats” by operating the Neihu Line while the system was still in its testing period.
They urged the city government to provide free services on the two lines for at least one month.
Hau said more senior engineers and high-ranking officials from the Neihu Line’s builder, Montreal-based Bombardier, would soon arrive in Taipei to work on the system’s instabilities.
In related news, a malfunction on the Blue Line yesterday resulted in a delay of about an hour after an earthquake in the early hours caused a crack in a cable line.
Taipei City Secretariat Deputy Director Tan Gwa-guang (譚國光), the head of the Neihu Line’s emergency response team and former president of TRTC, answered questions yesterday about the Blue Line malfunction.
Tan said the crack in the cable line had caused trains to malfunction at MRT Fuzhong Station at 6:03am. The interval between trains was then extended from 5 minutes to 15 minutes.
The malfunction was resolved and trains intervals shortened by 7:03am.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS