The Taiwan Railways Administration is at 5am today to resume full operations on the railway line between Rueifang (瑞芳) and Houtong (猴硐) stations in New Taipei City after operations were disrupted by a rain-triggered landslide, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
Lin inspected the section of line for the ninth time yesterday.
He told reporters that the agency resumed two-way operations on the eastern line on Dec. 4 last year and it had set a goal of resuming operations on the western line on Monday next week.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications
“Construction went more smoothly than the agency had anticipated. It is to conduct tests tonight [Tuesday] and full operations are due to resume at 5am on Feb. 3,” Lin said.
Lin thanked the members of the construction crew, who worked on a narrow hinterland in rainy weather over the past two months and had completed the work before the deadline.
“As people are getting ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year holiday, resuming full operations on this section will greatly help eastbound railway services,” he said.
The agency said that workers had to endure cold temperatures brought by the northeast monsoon, cold waves and days of rain during the construction.
After building a retaining wall and removing 2,500m3 of earth, workers paved the railway tracks, installed utility poles, and restored the power supply and the signals, the agency said.
They also conducted multiple tests on the section to ensure that trains would be able to run safely, it said.
They also installed an automatic system to monitor for potential landslides, it added.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS