Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) today announced that train services on the Pingxi Line would be suspended until midnight on Sunday due to track bed erosion and slope movement caused by recent downpours.
Constant rainfall since early this week has led to frequent rockfalls and landslides along the seven-stop Pingxi Line between Sandiaoling (三貂嶺) and Jingtong (菁桐) in New Taipei City, the TRC said in a news release.
Photo copied by Lu Hsien-hsiu, Taipei Times
The company said that slope movement occurred between Sandiaoling and Dahua stations, while about 100m of track bed was washed away between Wanggu and Lingjiao stations.
Following an on-site inspection by experts yesterday, the company decided that emergency slope reinforcement work would only begin once weather conditions stabilize.
Train services on the 12.9km Pingxi Line, known for its scenic landscape and historic stops, have been suspended since Monday after sections were reported prone to landslides due to continuous rainfall.
The latest announcement of service suspension came as Taiwan entered a three-day holiday marking Taiwan Retrocession Day tomorrow.
The TRC said that during the suspension period, a bus replacement service would run between all stops along the rail line, including Ruifang, Shifen, Wanggu, Lingjiao, Pingxi and Jingtong stations, operating in a round-trip manner.
Bus departure times from Ruifang are 7:10am, 9:10am, 2pm, 4pm and 6pm; and from Jingtong Station at 8:10am, 10:10am, 3pm, 5:10pm and 7pm.
In addition, from Monday next week to Nov. 30, train services on the entire Pingxi Line would be replaced with a shuttle bus on weekdays (Monday to Friday).
On weekends (Saturday and Sunday), trains would operate between Rueifang (瑞芳) and Shifen (十分), while buses would run between Shifen and Jingtong, the TRC said yesterday.
The company advised passengers to check the latest train service updates on its official Web site, through its 24-hour customer service hotlines (02-2191-0096 or 0800-765-888) or at nearby stations before traveling.
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS