The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today.
Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress.
The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和).
Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he said.
Workers are now installing station interior finishes, electrical and water systems, environmental control systems and tracks, he added.
The first train, which arrived from Brazil in October last year, has completed static testing at the depot at Jincheng (金城), he said.
Signal testing on the track began in August, followed by communication tests between the control center and trains, he said.
Six additional trains are expected to be delivered to the depot by the end of this year, he said.
The Jincheng depot, located at the junction of Banciao (板橋), Jhonghe and Tucheng (土城) districts, is a five-level facility for storage, maintenance, testing and dispatch, the New Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems said.
The depot has a five-level design, with the first basement level serving as a parking lot for a commercial complex, while the second basement level houses the train storage capable of holding 36 trains, it said.
This would provide ample space for the 19 Wanda-Zhonghe Line trains and 16 trains for the Tucheng-Shulin Line, it added.
The Jincheng Depot would include Chukuang Station, which is to be located about 120m from the F28 station of the Taishan-Banciao light rail line, allowing for a transfer time of just 1 minute, department head Lee Cheng-an (李政安) said.
The Wanda-Zhonghe Line is expected to reduce the commute from Zhonghe Senior High School Station to Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to only 14 minutes, he said.
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