The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) yesterday unveiled its new tilting train car, which will be used to enhance transportation capacity on the Eastern Line.
The nation’s largest railway service has purchased 136 tilting train cars from Japan. The first order of 16 cars is scheduled to arrive in October, with the remaining train cars scheduled to arrive by the end of next year.
TRA said it would conduct strict tests on the train cars that arrive in October before using them to carry passengers during the Lunar New Year holiday next year.
Currently, TRA has five tilting trains serving passengers on the Eastern Line. The trains automatically tilt when driven around a bend, allowing drivers to maintain high speeds on curved sections of track.
As the new tilting trains are to be used to carry Eastern Line -passengers, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has promised the train service will be named by the Taitung County Government.
Taitung County Magistrate Justin Huang (黃健庭) said the county has received about 2,200 proposed names for the new train service.
Some suggested it could be named after food produced in Taitung, such as sweet potato chips or Chihshang (池上) rice, while others said the train should be named after a famous singer from Taitung, such as Chang Huei-mei (張惠妹).
Huang said 20 of the suggestions would be selected and put to an online vote between July 5 and July 20, with votes received accounting for 50 percent of the final score.
The person whose proposed name for the service is chosen will be rewarded with a free hot air balloon trip for two people, valued at NT$16,000, and be able to ride the new tilting train free of charge for one year.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai