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.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS