Taipei City’s Neihu-Muzha MRT Line was shut down again yesterday for about 50 minutes because of a brake system malfunction on a train leaving Dazhi Station.
Yesterday’s breakdown marked the seventh shutdown of the line since it began operation early last month.
The train was inoperable after arriving at Dazhi Station at 9:12am.
The Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) suspended the line’s service at 9:27am and sent the train back to the Neihu Depot for repair work.
The line resumed service at 10am, said Taipei City Secretariat Deputy Director Tan Gwo-guang (譚國光), spokesman for the line.
No trains were stopped between stations at the time of malfunction and all 200 passengers on the 28 trains in service were evacuated, he said at Taipei City Hall.
Tan said this type of malfunction had not happened before and that technicians were looking into the problem.
Just two days after the line was closed for the weekend for a system inspection, Tan said the TRTC and the system’s builder, Bombardier, were sparing no effort to stabilize the system.
The line will be closed again on Saturday and Sunday for inspection. Engineers will continue installation of uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems at each of the stations and to upgrade the network’s system, he said.
“The UPS installation and the network system upgrade will both help stabilize the line,” he said.
Free shuttle buses will be available during the two-day shutdown, with Red Line shuttle buses running between Linguang Station and Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Station and Green Line buses between Taipei Zoo Station and Songshan Airport Station.
In light of the continuous problems with the line, the city government last week halted refitting work on the Muzha Line’s original 25 trains and said it was weighing the possibility of temporarily closing the new Bombardier-built Neihu Line and switching back to the original Matra system for the Muzha Line.
“Convenience for the passengers is the priority when weighing the options,” Tan said at the time.
RSS