Almost 8,000 railway passengers were delayed in Chiayi County early yesterday morning as a railway switch near Minhsiung Railway Station was damaged by a maintenance carriage.
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said the maintenance carriage was sent to repair wing walls for culverts at the Taidokeng Bridge at the southern end of the railway station, which were damaged by torrential rain in the area on Monday.
The incident occurred at 5:09am when the workers had completed the job and the maintenance carriage was returning to Minhsiung Station.
The carriage went through the 12B railway switch at Minhsiung Station, causing the switch to malfunction, which led to disruption of railway operations, the TRA said.
The TRA said that two-way operation was resumed at 7:53am, adding that its operational safety committee will investigate the incident.
Approximately 7,800 passengers on 42 trains were affected by the disruption, the TRA said. Passengers on three affected express trains qualified for full refunds on their tickets as they were delayed for more than 45 minutes.
In a separate incident yesterday, a Tzukuang-class train traveling from Hualien to Greater Kaohsiung broke down at the Taipei Railway Station at 1:56pm due to a malfunctioning locomotive.
The TRA said that most of the passengers had chosen to board other trains to continue their trips.
However, some of the passengers complained that the administration simply let them wait without telling them when the train would be fixed.
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