Five high-speed rail trains were canceled and another 20 were delayed yesterday because of a signal malfunction on a track switch on the Miaoli-Yuanli section of the line, railways officials said in a statement released later in the day by the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC).
The malfunction occurred at 6:37am and was not fixed until 8:50am.
While technicians raced to fix the problem, all trains had to be switched to the unaffected southbound track, a change that forced the company to cancel three scheduled southbound trains and two northbound ones, the statement said.
REFUNDS
Thirteen other trains were delayed to the degree that the company said it would give affected passengers full refunds or half refunds on their ticket fares, while minor delays of less than 30 minutes hit another seven trains.
The first delay occurred when a northbound train, which began its journey in Taichung at 6:30am, stopped after passing Miaoli Station and remained there for 30 minutes before reversing direction and heading back to Taichung Station.
The train was scheduled to arrive at Taoyuan Station at 7:05am, but failed to get there until 8:38am.
The company apologized for the cancellations and delays, which triggered waves of complaints from inconvenienced passengers.
Passengers who purchased tickets for the five canceled trains could ask for a full refund at ticket counters, the company said.
MISSED FLIGHT
One TV station reported that the cancellations and delays led to disrupted travel plans for more than 10,000 people.
One irate passenger said he had been booked on a direct chartered flight to Nanjing, China, from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and that the delay caused him to miss his flight.
MISSED TEST
Five participants in a national examination for medical personnel at Taipei County’s Chiang-Tsui Junior High School did not arrive at the test venue in time and were forced to sit the first one-hour section of the test with only 20 minutes left on the clock.
The Bureau of High Speed Rail said it was scheduled to conduct its annual check on THSRC’s operations, maintenance and repairs, as well as passenger services, between the end of the month and early next month.
The bureau said that there had been 21 incidents on the high-speed railway involving signal malfunctions related to track switching since the high-speed rail system began operations in January 2007.
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