More than 25,000 railway passengers experienced delays yesterday morning due to a power outage caused by severed electrical wires near New Taipei City’s Shulin Railway Station.
The Taiwan Railways Administration said that a tree fell and hit the suspension insulators of the electrical wires and the high-frequency current caused the wires to break.
According to the administration, the upper portion of the tree’s trunk had been cut. A strong wind blew the tree over onto a utility pole along the railway line, which caused it to fall on the electrical wires.
The agency said that the incident forced a train to stop on the line and led to power failures at both the Shulin Railway Station and a section between Banciao (板橋) and Yingge (鶯歌).
Power was partially restored at 11:34am in the Banciao-Yingge section, with two-way operations resuming on one set of tracks, the agency said, adding that full two-way operations on both tracks resumed at 3pm.
The administration’s statistics showed that the incident delayed 50 trains and approximately 25,500 passengers. Among the delayed trains, seven were express trains that were delayed for more than 45 minutes.
According to the agency’s compensation rules, passengers of the seven express trains can within the next year claim a full refund of their tickets, it said.
Apart from the delays caused to trains, the incident also resulted in damage to railway infrastructure: electrical wiring, three sets of tripods and insulators, the agency said, adding that it would seek restitution — from whoever cut the tree.
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