The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) yesterday said that 228 apprentices and 10 driving assistants have been dispatched to assist drivers of express train services to promote passenger safety.
The initiative is part of reforms at the TRA that Minister of Transportation and Communications Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) announced on Monday after a Puyuma Express train derailment on Oct. 21 that killed 18 passengers and injured 215.
Preliminary findings by an Executive Yuan investigative team showed that the train driver, surnamed You (尤), was communicating with a train dispatcher and an inspector about a technical problem he was having for 43 minutes.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Railways Administration
The accident shows the risk of having only one driver on board, prompting the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ (MOTC) decision to have two drivers operating each train.
MOTC Deputy Minister Chi Wen-chung (祁文中) yesterday morning visited the TRA to see how it was implementing the new measure.
The TRA has 18 Puyuma Express and eight Taroko Express train services.
To implement the two-driver policy, the apprentice drivers and driving assistants yesterday started assisting the drivers of the two express train services, the TRA said.
“We will see if we need to continue implementing the two-driver policy after we have ascertained that the ATPs [automatic train protection] can function reliably,” Chi said.
The TRA has six types of trains: diesel-electric locomotives, electric locomotives, diesel hydraulic locomotives, push-pull electric locomotives, steam locomotives and electric multiple units.
It takes about 23 months to train a driver to operate one type of train, and another month of training to be able to operate a different type of train, the TRA said.
The TRA Train Drivers’ Association said that it used to be a TRA policy to have two drivers on board.
“However, as the agency began acquiring new trains and safety equipment, it began experimenting with having only one driver operate the train,” the association said.
The group said it has been urging the TRA to return to a two-driver policy for all trains after the collision at Dali Train Station (大里) in Yilan County in 2007, but the agency has rejected its proposal.
Meanwhile, the Society of Railway and National Planning said that the task force entrusted to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the TRA should take an in-depth look at the issues facing the agency.
“We absolutely understand the importance and necessity of having such a task force, but the task force should give the TRA a vision as well as strategies to achieve them before talking about reforms. It should also review how transport policies in the past have affected the TRA’s operations,” the society said.
Members of the task force should feel free to talk about what they think the problem is without fear of being punished, and all stakeholders must strive to reach a consensus on measures that the task force proposes to improve the agency, the society said.
Finally, the task force must list specific steps and timeline that the TRA must follow, which should help the agency reorganize its personnel structure, recruit workers and make budget plans, it said.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
RSS