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.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai