The suspension of the Maokong Gondola service on Oct. 1 after mudslides eroded the ground beneath a support pillar has sparked concerns over the system’s safety and its environmental impact despite the Taipei City Government’s guarantees that the system is safe.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and other city officials attributed the mudslides to heavy rains brought by recent typhoons, saying the gondola’s operation was suspended to ease unnecessary anxiety about its safety. For Muzha (木柵) residents, however, the incident has reinforced their worries.
“We’ve never seen such serious mudslides in the neighborhood before. It must be the construction of the gondola system that damaged the mountain and caused these mudslides,” said Hsu Li-chuan (徐莉娟), director of a management committee in the Chi-Hsia Hill residential community.
The community, which is located near a gondola support pillar, was severely damaged by mudslides caused by Typhoon Jangmei when part of a cliff bearing two support pillars crumbled in the storm.
Chen Teh-yao (陳德耀), an architect who has been living in the area for more than 30 years, said residents had warned the city government about possible mudslides, as vegetation on the slopes was destroyed during the gondola’s construction.
The city government rushed the project without a proper assessment and the mudslides caused by the typhoons were solid proof that the construction was completed without proper soil and water conservation, he said.
Hsu, Chen and a group of residents living near the gondola system have been protesting since its planning stages. In addition to damaging the mountain’s geology, they said, the gondola system has also caused noise pollution and traffic congestion for the residents.
The Maokong Gondola, Taipei City’s first cable car system, was a major municipal project under former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration and was aimed at developing tourism in Muzha.
The line, stretching from the Taipei City Zoo to Maokong, a popular area full of tea houses, cost the city more than NT$1.3 billion (US$39.3 million). It was opened to the public in July last year after a 12-week test run.
Frequent shutdowns because of operational failures in its early stages caused concerns, but the gondola soon became one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions, with passenger volume exceeding 5 million last month.
The city government did not halt the gondola’s service until two days after it learned of the mudslides and a 2.5m-deep hole left under a support pillar, leading to widespread criticism from residents and city councilors that city officials put the gondola’s operation and profit ahead of public safety.
“Why the urgency to resume operations immediately after the mudslides? What’s more important — money or human life?” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒) said.
Taipei City Secretariat Director Yang Hsi-an (楊錫安) said suspending operations would cost the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the operator of the system, more than NT$45 million (US$1.4 million) per month.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏) said residents and some experts had predicted the environmental damage.
However, the city government dodged environmental assessments by applying for the construction license of a major transportation construction project.
“Residents have cried so many tears over the years in fighting for their safety, but what they got from the city government was its arrogance and negligence,” Chien said.
Hau said that the system was “absolutely safe” because the pillars were set into igneous rocks beneath the surface and the service was halted only to ease public anxiety.
The city government invited a group of civil engineering experts to conduct an evaluation on its stability.
Hau said services would not resume until the evaluation confirmed the system’s safety.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said the city government needed to focus its efforts on public safety.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and