Thinking about taking the MRT into Taipei today? Think again.
Taipei's mass rapid transit system is expected to be out of service for a second day today after Typhoon Nari flooded sections of the line linking Panchiao and Nankang.
But that's not expected to cause major headaches for the almost 1 million commuters who take the rails each day to jobs in the city. Government offices, schools and some businesses will remain closed today for a second day running.
"The whole MRT system was down today because of the typhoon. As for tomorrow's operations, it will depend on the extent by which the flood waters recede," said Lin Chi-yao (
"Because the flood waters are still there and it will take time to make checks and repairs, we don't expect services will return to normal in the short term."
The only line of the MRT system to resume operation today will be the elevated Mucha Line, scheduled to start around 7am.
Lin estimated the service interruption would result in lost ticket sales of more than NT$30 million. The spokesman said he would keep the public abreast of any changes.
Typhoon Nari also interrupted most of the nation's domestic flights yesterday. Services are expected to return to normal today except flights departing from Taipei, according to domestic airlines.
Far Eastern Air Transport, which canceled all domestic flights yesterday, said it would resume most of its operations today after 10am.
But "because of heavy flooding on the tarmac at Taipei's Sungshan Airport, we won't resume domestic flights departing from Taipei until 12pm," said Chen Yun-chuan (陳韻全), a Far Eastern spokeswoman.
Chen Ting-chieh (
But as of press time yesterday, UNI Airways wasn't able to say whether it would resume domestic flights for today.
Yesterday's heavy rainfall also caused the closure of most rail services along the west coast after the Taipei Railway Station was reportedly inundated by floodwaters.
"The underground platform at Taipei Railway Station was flooded yesterday and there are 28 places along the railway between Taipei and Sungshan and between Taipei and Ilan" that were also under water, said a Ministry of Transportation and Communications representative stationed at the Disaster Rescue Command Center. "There's no sign that railway travel will resume soon."
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
NEGOTIATIONS: Taiwan has good relations with Washington and the outlook for the negotiations looks promising, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo said Taiwan’s GDP growth this year is expected to decrease by 0.43 to 1.61 percentage points due to the effects of US tariffs, National Development Council (NDC) Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei yesterday, citing a preliminary estimate by a private research institution. Taiwan’s economy would be significantly affected by the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs slapped by the US, which took effect yesterday, Liu said, adding that GDP growth could fall below 3 percent and potentially even dip below 2 percent to 1.53 percent this year. The council has commissioned another institution
RSS