The long-awaited fast new EMU800 commuter trains are scheduled to launch its first services tomorrow, the nation’s railway operator said yesterday.
The trains successfully passed all safety tests.
Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Deputy Director-General Chung Ching-da (鐘清達) said commuters between Keelung and Hsinchu, and between Chiayi and Pingtung, would be the first to enjoy the higher speeds of 130kph that the new trains offer.
Photo: CNA
In 2011, TRA purchased 296 EMU800 train carriages from Japan to meet rising demand.
“The trains will also replace some of the really old trains used for the Chukuang Express, which do not have automatic doors,” he said.
Chung said a further seven trains would be operational toward the end of the Lunar New Year holiday, with all train carriages to be in service by 2016.
TRA transportation department director Du Wei (杜微) said that every day 190,000 passengers travel between Keelung and Hsinchu, and 120,000 between Chiayi and Pingtung section.
Hsieh Ching-kuen (謝進崑), a section chief of TRA’s transportation department, said each eight-carriage set has 352 seats and can accommodate 910 standing passengers.
Hsieh said the foldable seats in carriages one and eight have been designed to make room for passengers in wheelchairs and cyclists, with larger, barrier-free toilets for passengers in wheelchairs.
Priority seats make up 25 percent of the total seats, which is 10 percent more than the legal requirement, he said, adding that the priority seats have handles on both sides, and the floor surrounding them is painted yellow with a high-friction surface.
Tang Feng-cheng (唐峰正), chairman of the Foundation of Universal Design Education, was yesterday invited to test ride the new train.
Tang, who survived polio, said the designs would give many people with disabilities the freedom to travel around the nation by train.
Access for All Association secretary-general Hsu Chao-fu (許朝富), another invited guest, said after boarding the train yesterday that he can easily push his wheelchair to a reserved spot and buckle up without assistance.
“In the past, you had all these safety belts around you, which made you look like you were strapped to the spot,” he said. “Now, all you have to do is buckle the wheelchair.”
However, Hsu added that the handles in the wheelchair zone were positioned too high.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by