Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) yesterday said that it would add more train services on several routes starting on June 26, following the completion of key infrastructure upgrades.
On the Eastern Trunk Line, two additional Tze-Chiang Express trains would begin operating following the reconstruction of Siaocingshui Bridge (小清水溪橋) between Heren (和仁) and Chongde (崇德) stations in Hualien County, the company said.
The bridge was rebuilt after one of the two tracks was destroyed by Typhoon Gaemi in August last year. With dual-track operations resumed in December last year, travel times between Taipei and Hualien have been significantly reduced, it said.
Photo: CNA
The new service beginning June 26 would run between Shulin Station in New Taipei City and Taitung Station, making stops only in Taipei and Hualien, it added.
Two new Tze-Chiang Express (3000) services would also be added to the schedule on the Western Trunk Line on Saturdays between Cidu (七堵) in Keelung and Changhua County, it said.
That would mean additional passenger capacity on the direct services between Taipei, Taichung’s Fongyuan District (豐原), and Taichung, it added.
The company would also add two carriages to each of the 22 local trains running between Keelung and Hsinchu, increasing them to 10-car formations.
A new local morning service would also be launched between Jhongli (中壢) in Taoyuan and Cidu, aimed at alleviating commuter congestion, it said.
With these adjustments, local train capacity in northern Taiwan is expected to rise by 4.4 percent overall and by 10.3 percent during the morning rush hour, the company said.
The company also plans to increase capacity on 18 local train services in central Taiwan following the completion of a project to extend station platforms to accommodate 10-car trains, up from the current eight-car configuration.
In addition, the routes of two Semi Express services between Cidu and Changhua would be extended to Sinzuoying (新左營) in Kaohsiung on weekends and public holidays, increasing overall local train capacity by 5.8 percent, it said.
In total, 386 train services would operate under the revised schedule, it added.
Group ticket reservations for the new services would open on May 23, with general ticket sales beginning on May 29, it added.
Separately, state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) announced on Sunday that about 26,000 high-voltage electricity users would be subject to higher summer rates from May 16 through mid-October.
Summer electricity rates, introduced in 1989 to encourage electricity conservation during peak demand months, typically apply from June to September.
However, the Ministry of Economic Affairs extended the surcharge period for high and extra high-voltage consumers, such as science parks, department stores and hotels, in 2023, citing the growing challenges of climate change.
While these users represent less than 1 percent of electricity customers in Taiwan, they consume more than 60 percent of the electricity, Taipower said.
Meanwhile, the nation’s 14 million residential and small business users would continue to pay summer rates over the standard period, from June 1 to Sept. 30, it added.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the