Ridership on Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit System (MRT) on New Year’s Eve and early New Year’s Day was slightly lower than the previous year, although more people took the MRT to attend the midnight countdown at Taipei 101, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said yesterday.
About 2.59 million passengers traveled on the MRT in the 24-hour period from 6am on Sunday to 6am yesterday, compared with 2.64 million during the same period the previous year, the firm said.
The slight drop in ridership was due to the three-day long weekend, which meant that most people traveling from Taipei to other parts of the nation left on Saturday and therefore did not ride during the 24-hour New Year’s period, it said.
Photo: CNA
However, local media reported that many people decided to stay home on New Year’s Eve because of poor air quality across the country.
Despite the slight fall in overall ridership, the number of passengers departing from the Taipei City Hall, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei 101/World Trade Center and Xiangshan stations — the four closest to Taipei 101 — between 6am on Sunday and 2am yesterday increased to 371,000 from 340,000 a year earlier, the company said.
MRT trains, which normally operate from 6am to midnight, remained in service for 42 straight hours, but are to resume regular operations today.
To maintain order and smooth service, the company deployed about 1,400 staff, police officers and volunteers at several stations on the Xinyi and Bannan lines, which lead to Taipei 101.
The Taipei 101 countdown party, recognized as the primary New Year’s Eve celebration in Taiwan, attracted a large crowd that watched the six-minute fireworks show at the 508m-tall tower.
The show, themed “2018 Happy Together,” integrated fireworks with an LED display that the organizers said was both innovative and environmentally friendly.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt has entered the South China Sea to promote “freedom of the seas,” the US military said yesterday, as tensions between China and Taiwan raise concerns in Washington. US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the strike group entered the South China Sea on Saturday, the same day Taiwan reported a large incursion of Chinese bombers and fighter jets into its air defense identification zone near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). The US military said the carrier strike group was in the South China Sea, a large part of which
STRATEGIC MISTAKE: Beijing’s deployment of aircraft near Taiwan proves the ‘China threat theory’ that sees it attempting to destabilize the region, an analyst said China on Saturday and yesterday sent a record number of military aircraft into the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in what analysts said was an attempt to flex its military might for US President Joe Biden. Thirteen Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ on Saturday and 15 entered yesterday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. On Saturday, eight Xian H-6K bombers, four Shenyang J-16 fighters and a Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, entered the ADIZ, while yesterday there were two Y-8s, two Su-30s, four J-16s, six J-10 fighters and a Y-8 reconnaissance
DISPOSING MYTHS: A new constitution would better reflect reality, as the current one was drafted ‘in and for China,’ without the consent of Taiwanese, advocates said Independence advocates yesterday launched the Taiwan New Constitution Alliance to promote drafting a new, localized constitution. “This is a historic moment for Taiwan. Drafting a new constitution is the most important task Taiwanese face,” veteran independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) said at the inaugural event in Taipei. “Although the Democratic Progressive Party is in power, its authority is based on the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution, which has no connection to Taiwan,” said the 95-year-old Koo, a former presidential adviser. “The historic task of drafting a new constitution depends on efforts by all Taiwanese,” Koo said. “A constitution for a sovereign, independent Taiwan