Minor malfunctions and mixed reactions from passengers marked the first day of operations on Taipei City’s MRT Neihu Line yesterday.
The first train of the line was dispatched at 9am yesterday, taking Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and city government officials, employees of Taipei City’s Rapid Transit Department and other passengers from Nankang Exhibition Center Station to Taipei Zoo Station.
Hau thanked the staff at the department for their hard work over the past six years and invited the public to experience the new line.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
“The opening of the Neihu Line means that each of the 12 districts in Taipei City are covered by MRT lines, helping complete the MRT network in the city,” Hau said.
Travel time between the two stations took about 45 minutes yesterday. The doors of the cars failed to open immediately after the train arrived at MRT Xihu Station and Dahu Park Station, while some passengers complained that they were unable to enter the cars because the doors closed too quickly.
At about 10am, a train made a sudden stop between Xinhai Station and Linkuang Station for about 15 minutes before resuming service.
Hau said the train was equipped with automatic safety sensors and that it would stop if the sensors detected abnormalities.
The department later said the sudden stop was the result of a false alarm sent by the sensors.
Because of the narrow cars of the Neihu Line and the large crowd during the weekend, several MRT stations, including Zhongxiao Fuxing Station, were cramped with passengers waiting to use the service.
“The cars are too small. The city government should improve the situation. Otherwise similar problems will happen again,” a passenger who waited for more than 20 minutes to get on at Zhongxiao Fuxing Station said.
Some passengers who took luggage with them at MRT Songshan Airport Station also had difficulty entering the cramped cars.
Passenger Wang Wei-lun (王偉綸), a college student who waited in line at Neihu Station to take the first train, said the overall experience was good, but added that the cars were too narrow.
Another passenger, a 62-year-old woman surnamed Yang (楊), said the operation of the Neihu Line provided great convenience to local residents like her, but added that the volume of the broadcasting system inside the cars should be louder.
Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said the crowd inside the cars and in the stations should improve after the first three days of operation, adding that it would send more staff to ensure order at the stations.
The 14.8km line is a medium capacity system connecting the Muzha line’s Zhongshan Junior High School station to the Nankang line’s Taipei Nankang Exhibition Center. Aside from Songshan Airport station and Dazhi station, the entire Neihu line runs above ground.
In celebration of the opening of the Neihu Line, the city government encouraged the public to take the MRT using an EasyCard today and tomorrow at a discounted price.
People who take any MRT line during the three-day period will enjoy a 50 percent discount.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its