The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is next year to start changing some of its antiquated power facilities, with the cost of the four-year project expected to top NT$8 billion (US$280.30 million).
While the launch on Dec. 20 of electrified train services on the South Link Line — which was the nation’s last unelectrified railway line — marked a significant milestone, the agency yesterday said that some of its power facilities have reached the age of retirement after having been used for more than four decades.
The agency has been gradually retiring some of the high-risk power system facilities since 2015, it said.
As of the end of this year, it has changed 1,260km of main overhead wires, TRA electricity section chief Cheng Chih-ming (鄭志銘) said, adding that the new wires have increased structural tension by 22 percent and reduced the number of incidents caused by broken overhead wires.
The agency also increased the capacity of the transformers in nine of the substations along the line from 15 megavolt-amperes to 25 megavolt-amperes, Cheng said.
Workers’ ability to repair and maintain the wires have vastly improved through the use of 17 newly purchased overhead line maintenance vehicles, he added.
Cheng said the agency would spend NT$8 billion in the next four years to replace some of the critical infrastructure in its power system.
Traditional wires in the underground tunnel connecting New Taipei City’s Sijhih (汐止) and Fuchou (浮洲) railway stations — which stretches a total of 52km — would be replaced with conductor rail wires, he said.
The agency would also purchase two high-speed overhead line inspection vehicles, which can quickly convert collected information into quantitative data, he said.
“Our long-term goal is to develop an Internet-of-Things system to manage the facilities related to the railway system,” Cheng said. “Using a smart system would allow us to quickly locate a malfunctioning current transformer or a protective relay.”
“This would reduce our maintenance costs and enable us to run a safer and reliable train service,” he added.
Maintenance workers in the agency would also undergo training focused on life-cycle management systems for railway facilities, in which they would learn to better identify facilities that need replacement and propose changes, Cheng said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS