WEATHER
Cool weather to continue
Dry and cold weather is forecast to continue through Wednesday as a northeasterly wind system carrying little humidity lingers, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday. With the system forecast to weaken on Wednesday evening, sporadic showers are possible in mountainous areas of northern, northeastern and eastern parts of the country, while stable weather is likely to continue elsewhere, the bureau said. The weather is expected to remain relatively cool through tomorrow, with lows of 15°C to 17°C in northern and central Taiwan, due to depleted cloud cover, the bureau said. In other areas, lows through Wednesday are expected to be between 18°C and 20°C, it said. It advised people in central and southern Taiwan to be aware of possibly large differences between daytime and nighttime temperatures and to keep warm as the mercury falls at night. The northeasterly is helping to disperse atmospheric pollutants across Taiwan, so air quality has been fair, except in southern Taiwan, where the Air Quality Index showed an “orange alert” in some areas, indicating unhealthy air for sensitive groups, the Environmental Protection Administration said.
TRANSPORTATION
Downed line delays trains
Rail services in eastern areas were delayed yesterday due to broken overhead power lines, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said. Trains traveling between Hanben Station in Yilan County and Heping Station in Hualien County were running at least 20 minutes behind schedule since midnight on Friday and the delays continued until about 9pm yesterday, the TRA said. The problems began at 11:51pm on Friday, when a pantograph atop an express train traveling from New Taipei City to Hualien fell and downed power lines, the TRA said. The pantograph, a diamond-shaped apparatus on the roof of electric trains that connects to the overhead lines, also broke a window in the driver’s cab and damaged some carriages, the TRA said. The driver, Wu Chang-chi (吳長智), said he immediately applied the brakes and the train stopped after traveling another 500m. None of the 300 people onboard were hurt, Wu said.
TRANSPORTATION
Mayor touts Airport MRT
The Taoyuan Airport MRT which links Taipei Main Station to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport has served more than 63 million passengers since it began operations in 2017, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said on Friday. Since the launch of commercial services on March 2, 2017, the number of people who have accessed the the 51.03km line, which connects Taipei and Taoyuan via New Taipei City, has grown steadily, Cheng said at an event at the A8 Chang Gung Memorial Hospital Station in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口). Average daily ridership was 74,000 in the first 10 months of this year, up 20.9 percent year-on-year, Cheng said. Two services run on the line, commuter and express trains. Express trains run from Taipei to the airport in 38 minutes, while the commuter service stops at all 21 stations, but still takes only 50 minutes. The operator is seeking to balance revenue and costs by drawing in more passengers, Cheng said, adding that the increases in passenger numbers are due to discounts that were introduced last year. There are 20,000 to 30,000 passengers who use the line each day, which reduced congestion on roads, he said.
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
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
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard