The Taipei City Government yesterday brushed off concerns about the safety of the Neihu-Muzha MRT Line after reports said the overly sensitive system had been readjusted.
The operation of the line has been suspended on weekends since earlier this month for system inspections and improvement work as Taipei Rapid Transit Corp. (TRTC) and Bombardier Inc, the system’s builder, try to stabilize the problem-plagued system.
The comments came after the Chinese-language Next Magazine, quoting an anonymous source from the TRTC, said one of the adjustments — reducing the safety factor and lowering the sensitivity of the system — would make the line less safe for passengers.
Taipei City Secretariat Deputy Director Tan Gwo-guang (譚國光), spokesman for the line, dismissed the report, saying all the improvement work was focused on making the line safer and more stable.
Tan said the adjustment and improvements did not include changing the safety level of the system. However, both Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and TRTC blamed the frequent malfunctions on the line on an overly sensitive system, and said making the system less sensitive would be one of the major goals during the inspections.
The line has experienced 58 malfunctions or system breakdowns since operations began on July 4. The city government delayed the line’s service on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16 until 11am for a more thorough system inspection.
Operations were suspended last weekend, and will be suspended again this weekend to continue the work.
Tan said TRTC and Bombardier would continue the installation of an uninterruptible power supply system at each of the 24 stations on Saturday and Sunday this week, as well as upgrade the network’s software.
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