Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) trains are expected to begin running again between Taipei and Yilan County early this morning, 10 days after a landslide disrupted service, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
If repairs proceed smoothly, the first train is scheduled to depart Ruifang Station at 5:11am, Lin said following an inspection of repairs to the landslide-damaged sections of the track between New Taipei City’s Rueifang (瑞芳) and Houtong (猴硐) stations.
After days of heavy rain, a landslide on Dec. 4 caused 3,800m3 of rocks, dirt and debris to crash down on sections of the track between the two stations, triggering a suspension of service along the TRA’s northeast corridor that affected tens of thousands of travelers.
Repair work took longer than expected because of poor weather and the risk of further landslides.
The track has been cleared and workers have started to lay new rails, and then test runs on the eastern mainline would be conducted to ensure traffic safety, Lin said.
However, more work still needs to be done to reinforce the stability of the hillside before traffic on the western mainline can resume, the minister said.
Trains are not expected to resume on the western mainline for more than a month, which means that services would resume today on the eastern mainline with two-way runs, he said.
The TRA schedule showed that a local train is set to depart Keelung’s Badu Station (八堵) for Jingtong Station (菁桐) in New Taipei City at 4:57am today, arriving at Rueifang Station at 5:10am and at Houdong Station at 5:17am.
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