The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) yesterday introduced its first science fiction-themed train, featuring two “visitors from outer space desperate to travel on Taiwan’s tracks.”
TRA Director-General Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) said the train, called “Evolution No. 1001,” was remodeled from the one previously used by the agency’s directors to inspect railway routes, or serve as a temporary command center when the nation experienced a major natural disaster or catastrophic traffic accident.
The train’s registration number is DSC100l and its nickname is “TRA One,” after the name of the well-known presidential carrier Air Force One.
Photo: CNA
He said the remodeled locomotive would initially operate on branch lines in Pingsi (平溪), Neiwan (內灣) and Jiji (集集).
Inspired by the train’s registration number, the two “aliens” have been named “Mr Ten” and “Miss One.”
They were created by designer Akibo Lee (李明道), who wanted to tell the story of aliens trying to find a place to settle down by going on a railway tour.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“I am a father myself and I hope that more parents would take their children to travel with the aliens,” he said.
Mr Ten has a huge head containing all the maps to other galaxies, while Miss One has an antenna that is able to locate delicious food, Lee said. The couple have been traveling around the universe as backpackers, working to pay their dues.
They chose to travel to Earth this time and fell in love with Taiwan, Lee said.
The couple were particularly impressed by the railway system in Taiwan and decided to take a part-time job at the TRA, he said.
The alien couple can be seen on the exterior of the train as well as on restroom doors, no-smoking signs, wallpaper and seat headrest covers.
The railway operator will also sell memorabilia featuring images of the aliens, including lunch bags, lunch boxes and backpacks.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS