Preparations for tomorrow's opening of the latest addition to Taipei's mass rapid trasit system -- the southern section of the Hsintien line -- have been considerably smoother than previous openings, officials said yesterday.
So much so, they said, that the line is opening three weeks ahead of schedule.
"In the past, we didn't have enough experience. Now that the city's MRT system has been in operation for over three years, the opening of the new line had fewer hitches," said Yen Pang-chieh (顏?3?, vice president of the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (TRTC).
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
"We've gradually learnt how to avoid the pitfalls that occurred in the past, and how to handle similar difficulties," Yen said.
An opening ceremony is plan-ned for 11am tomorrow at the Hsintien Station. The line was originally scheduled to open at the end of this month.
Eight new stations going south from Kuting to Hsintien will open tomorrow, which will enable passengers to ride directly from Hsintien to Tamshui station without changing trains.
MRT passengers travelling from Hsintien station to the Taipei Railway Station -- a distance of 10.5km -- will spend only 19 minutes on their journey. This cuts by half the time taken by bus passengers or vehicle drivers on the same route, city officials said.
The line passed the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' inspection procedures on Monday, and Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬-^?E) announced later that evening that the line was ready to open.
A few problems were discovered during the inspection, but these involved services and amenities at stations, not safety pitfalls that may affect the line's operations, corporation officials said yesterday.
The Hsintien line, which took eight years to complete, is the fourth MRT route to open since construction on the system began in 1986. The Mucha line was the first, on March 28, 1996, while the Tamshui line opened a year later. The Chungho line and the Hsintien line's northern section opened at the end of last year.
If the first east-west line, from Panchiao to Nankang, starts operation by the end of this year as planned -- thereby connecting the Mucha and Tamshui lines -- the MRT system is expected to carry over 600,000 passengers a day, rising from the current figure of 350,000 to 400,000, Yen said.
The corporation and the Taipei City Government have cooperated to encourage ridership by providing more parking spaces for cars, motorcycles and bicycles near stations, it was announced at the weekend.
City officials said the MRT scheme has improved over time.
When the Mucha line opened in 1996, free rides were offered during an initial four-week trial period during which operating hours were limited and then gradually brought up to current levels. In this way, a number of operational problems were gradually sorted out.
"We were not so sure whether the line was ready for transport service, so we kept a low profile and took a gradual approach then," Yen said.
The transport ministry's inspection team had found more faults with the previous three lines than with the Hsintien line, Yen added.
The corporation hopes to have the Panchiao-Nankang line open from the Taipei City Government station to the Lungshan Temple station by the end of this year, Yen said.
See tomorrow's newspaper for special reports on the opening of the new line, including a cut-out map.
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