Around 250 passengers aboard a northbound train on Taipei’s Wenshan-Neihu MRT line were evacuated yesterday after staff at Nanjing East Road station detected a burning odor coming from cars.
The incident occurred at 8:29am when the train was at Nanjing East Road station.
As soon as station staff smelled the burning odor, “we immediately evacuated all 250 passengers on the train according to the standard operating procedure and asked them to take the next train,” Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) spokesman Chao Hsiung-fei (趙雄飛) said. “The train was at the station, so the evacuation and the change of train all took place inside the station.”
He said the incident only caused a few minutes’ delay for passengers.
The malfunctioning train was sent to the maintenance depot in Neihu.
“The burning smell was produced by an overheated brake system,” Chao said, adding that similar incidents had happened on six previous occasions since line testing began last year.
“I can’t say if it’s exactly the same problem but technicians [from the Germany-based supplier of the brake system, Knorr-Bremse] will check it. They have just arrived in Taiwan,” he said.
In past incidents, the burning smell was triggered by friction between the brake pad and brake disk after the emergency brake intensifier on the train malfunctioned.
A report by the Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems for the city council earlier this month revealed the same problem had occurred six times during the test operation period last year.
The malfunctioning parts had been sent to Knorr-Bremse for checks, however, the company did not find anything wrong with them.
The Taipei City Government has asked the TRTC to provide a detailed account of how and why the problem occurs repeatedly as soon as possible.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
RSS