A public memorial concert is to be held at Taipei Main Station at 7pm on Wednesday to commemorate the victims of the 2021 Hualien Taroko Express train derailment, known locally as the “0402 accident.”
Chen Meng-hsiu (陳孟秀), an attorney representing the victims’ families, said yesterday that the concert would mark the fourth anniversary of the rail accident that killed 49 people and injured 309 — the deadliest in Taiwan Railway Co’s nearly 60-year history.
This year’s memorial theme — “Eternal Love and Remembrance” — includes a unique light beam installation designed to symbolize hope, Chen said.
Photo courtesy of Chen Meng-hsiu
The light beams would shine through the Heren (和仁), Cingshuei (清水) and Chongde (崇德) tunnels along the North-Link Line, which connects Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳) and Hualien City, she said.
The 2021 crash occurred at the northern entrance to the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道).
The light installation, inspired by similar tributes to the Sept. 11 attacks in the US in 2001 and the Amagasaki derailment in Japan in 2005, is meant to transform families’ grief into “eternal love” and act as a reminder of railway safety, Chen said.
Taiwan Railways official Chien Hsin-li (簡信立) said that the lights would be activated at the moment Taroko Express train 408 — the train with the same number as the one that derailed four years ago — passes through the area on Wednesday.
The light effects would continue for seven days as part of the memorial, he added.
The light installation would not interfere with train drivers’ ability to see, as it is designed to be safe for passengers and staff, Chien said.
In addition to the concert, Taiwan Railways would distribute information cards about the memorial on all trains along the North-Link Line, Chien added.
The concert is open to the general public, he said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS