A Taipei City Council team investigating the problem-plagued Wenshan-Neihu MRT line yesterday concluded that the city government’s rush to start the line’s operations contributed to its frequent breakdowns and urged the city to include stability tests as a requisite in opening new MRT lines.
The team is composed of a group of city councilors across party lines, led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Councilor Lin Chin-chang (林晉章).
Presenting the results of their investigation at the Taipei City Council, Lin said the city government should take responsibility for rushing the operation of the line and failing to conduct comprehensive test runs on the line’s stability and operations.
“The city government rushing the operation is the key factor behind the line’s frequent problems. Its crisis-management ability is also disappointing,” he said.
The MRT Wenshan-Neihu Line was inaugurated on July 4, but has suffered repeated glitches, including trains suddenly stopping and doors failing to open.
The first major incident happened on July 10, when a power outage brought the line to a stop, leaving approximately 700 passengers stranded on trains that stopped between stations and forcing them to walk to nearby stations along the tracks.
The line has suffered more than 100 malfunctions since then, prompting the city government to offer a 36 percent discount to passengers who take the line.
Lin said the stability of MRT lines should be listed in the contract, and any MRT line should not start operation until stability reaches 99 percent.
The stability of the line did not reach 99.18 percent until November, after its operator, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp, and the system’s builder, Canadian firm Bombardier, had worked to improve the system.
The team also urged the city government and system builder to continue working on reducing the noise level amid complaints from local residents.
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