A free shuttle bus will be available along the length of the Neihu-Muzha MRT Line from 6am to midnight today and tomorrow while the line is closed for system maintenance, the Taipei City Government said yesterday.
The line was suspended from 10pm yesterday through tomorrow for inspection. Taipei City’s Department of Transportation will offer more than 100 shuttle buses each day during the period, with Red Line shuttle buses running between Linguang Station and Nangang Exhibition Center Station, and Green Line buses running between the Taipei Zoo Station and Songshan Airport Station, the department’s commissioner Luo Shiaw-shyan (羅孝賢) said.
The buses will run at intervals of between three and five minutes, and the department will dispatch more buses to carry passengers if necessary, he said.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
In response to passenger complaints about the short notice of the line’s suspension last weekend and poor information about the free shuttle service, Luo said the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC) would send staff to guide passengers and provide bus information at each station.
He said they would also put up signs in front of MRT stations to notify passengers about the service.
The city government delayed the line’s operation until 11am on Saturday and Sunday last week for inspections, and it decided to extend the service suspension period this weekend after the line experienced three breakdowns on Tuesday, all because of malfunctions at the Neihu line’s Dahu Park Station.
Taipei City Secretariat Deputy Director Tan Gwo-guang (譚國光), spokesman for the line, declined to say whether the city government would close the line each weekend for inspections, and said the decision would be made by the system builder, Bombardier Inc, which is responsible for improving the stability of the line and fixing the problems.
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