The Taipei Main Station stop on the Tamsui MRT line will reopen at 6am today, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said yesterday.
The stop has been out of commission since Typhoon Nari hit Taiwan in early September.
The reopening, nearly a week earlier than the original target date of Dec. 5, means that passengers transferring between the Tamsui and Nankang lines no longer need to make a detour by taking the Hsiao Nanmen line or walking between two stations.
The announcement was made after the station passed a safety inspection by the Taipei City Government's fire department two days ago and after the city's Nari reconstruction committee had verified the station's safety.
The reopening of the station will shorten the time commuters will have to wait for trains on the MRT's two main north-south lines by one minute, from 10 minutes down to nine. On the section between Peitou and Kuting stations, the frequency will be increased to one train every four minutes.
However, since the signal system at the Taipei Main Station is still out of order, trains will only travel at 25kph between the National Taiwan University Hospital and Chungshan stations.
In related news, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp announced that well-known Taiwanese opera singer Sun Tsui-feng (孫翠鳳) will adorn 200,000 one-way tickets being put into circulation from Saturday.
Sun is the appointed "Security Angel" of MRT escalators and her voice is heard in stations urging travellers to be careful when using the escalators.
The one-way ticket will carry the message, in Chinese, "Sun Tsui-feng reminds you to be careful when using the escalators."
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