The Taiwan Railway Administration got a new director-general yesterday after the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) approved the resignation of Chen Te-pei (陳德沛), who stepped down to take responsibility for a number of recent rail mishaps.
Huang Te-Chih (
An MOTC staffer said Huang was recognized as one of the most capable people in the ministry. Sources said he was chosen to take charge of the TRA because of his previous experience as the director-general of the ministry's Department of Railways and Highways (路政司).
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Huang also has a reputation for having good interpersonal skills. These skills are likely to be tested immediately, since his appointment has given rise to dissent in the administration where previous holders of the post of director-general have been appointed by internal promotion. Huang's lack of experience in railway affairs is also likely to breed dissent at the administration.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Chu-lan (
Chen, however, said he was "too dejected to be taking care of any other new posts" and wanted to take early retirement. He was originally scheduled to retire next January.
Chen, in his resignation letter to Yeh, said he would take responsibility for several accidents on the railway network that had provoked intense public criticism.
On Oct. 17, two regular trains and one Fuhsing-class express train unexpectedly lost power and were stranded inside a tunnel 2km from Taipei's Sungshan Railway Station. Nine hundred passengers had to walk though the tunnel to safety.
According to the Taiwan Railway Administration, the power outage was caused by faulty wiring. However, the problems took almost three hours to fix, resulting in a flood of complaints from passengers.
In Keeling the following morning, an empty Fuhsing-class train jumped the tracks at 7:08am -- rush hour -- resulting in the cancelation of outbound and inbound trains.
Since those two events, there have been four more accidents which while minor -- resulting in inconvenience rather than injury of loss of life -- have given the debt-laden railway administration some very bad press.
Chen offered his resignation two days ago, after an accident that morning, because he "felt responsible for the administration's management problems which had resulted in its poor standard of preparedness and slow response times in emergencies."
Some of the railway administration's staff have claimed that some employees have become less careful in carrying out their duties because they had been distracted by the administration's projected privatization and the possibility that they may lose their jobs as a result.
Chen himself also blamed the administration's budgetary problems for its poor performance.
"The downsizing of employees necessitated using less skilled staff for professional jobs such as the operation and repair of trains. This has also contributed to the accidents," Chen said.
Chen said the procurement of inferior quality Korean rolling stock because of budgetary constraints also was a factor in the administration's declining standards of service.
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