The name of a train depot in Pingtung County should be changed to highlight that the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) western main line begins there, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday at the site’s opening ceremony.
At the new Kaohsiung Railway Workshop Depot, which was relocated to Pingtung’s Chaojhou Township (潮州), only 18 workers are needed to service a train within just 40 minutes, Su said.
At the old depot, 156 employees worked 12-hour shifts, he added.
Photo: CNA
Streamlined train maintenance work improves service at the agency, which transports about 200 million passengers a year, Su said.
The TRA said in a news release that the depot was moved to Chaojhou at a cost NT$134.8 billion (US$4.54 billion) because the Kaohsiung City Government is planning to move all railways in the city underground.
The new depot has the TRA’s largest repair capability, and is the most technologically advanced and environmentally friendly of all its depots, Su said.
Its material management information system enables standardized, digitized repairs of tourism and normal trains, Su said.
The TRA is planning to set up a railway culture park around the depot’s retention pond, hoping that the depot would also serve as a tourist site.
Su said he hopes the depot would be a boon for Pingtung’s tourism sector.
The planned corporatization of the TRA would also help create jobs in the area, Su said, thanking the agency’s employees who support the planned reform.
“The move will bring back the glory days of the TRA and once again make its employees proud to be working for the organization,” Su said.
Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said the depot’s railway culture park would hopefully attract tourists to the area, where they can also visit the Chao Hao Wan Playground (潮好玩幸福村).
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS