Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) plans to install rope screen doors on platforms in some stations to help prevent people from falling onto railway tracks.
The state-run railway company records an average of 10 intrusions on railway lines each year.
As a trial, TRC has installed a set of rope screen doors on one of the platforms at Kaohsiung Railway Station.
Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei
Local news media were invited to watch the progress of the trial on Wednesday.
The goal is to complete the installation of rope screen doors on the 300m-long platform by the end of this year and begin operations in March next year following a three-month test.
Construction is estimated to cost NT$149.8 million (US$4.6 million), the company said.
TRC president Feng Hui-sheng (馮輝昇) said that the company decided to hold the trial at Kaohsiung Railway Station, as it has a 300m-long platform and a wider variety of trains stop there.
“If the trial proves to be a success, trials at other stations would become easier,” Feng said.
The rope screen doors have a speed detector installed and would only lift when the device has determined that the train has come to a full stop and the train doors have opened, Feng said.
The light detection and ranging device on rope screen doors would also sound an alarm whenever people come too close to them, Feng said.
Specialists conducting the trial also said that people would be bounced back if they tried to run through the ropes, adding that most would find it difficult to climb over the steel ropes.
Feng said that the company decided to install rope screen doors rather than the platform doors seen at Taipei and Kaohsiung MRT stations for air ventilation on the platforms.
“Unlike the MRT systems, we have various train types, such as intercity trains and commuter trains. Some form a train set with eight cars, while others have 10 cars. The rope screen doors would be more appropriate, as the trains park at slightly different locations on platforms,” Feng said.
The company would install rope screen doors at railway stations depending on the number of passengers, the number of foreign object intrusion incidents and platform designs, Feng said.
Costs would gradually reduce when more rope screen doors are installed, Feng added.
The company would educate passengers on how the rope screen doors function before stipulating penalties for those who try to damage them, Feng added.
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