The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) yesterday said that it is to purchase 48 new carriages for its EMU800 commuter trains due to an excess in funding caused by the devaluation of the Japanese yen.
The TRA said the excess of approximately NT$2 billion (US$6.83 million) was left over from its previous 10-year carriage acquisition plan, in which the administration purchased carriages for Taroko Express and Puyuma Express trains as well as EMU700 and EMU800 trains.
The orders all arrived by May this year, it said.
The budget for the earlier acquisitions was NT$35.9 billion, the TRA said. Because of the devaluation of the yen, it still had NT$2 billion left and used it to order 48 more carriages from the Taiwan Rolling Stock Co, a joint venture of Taiwanese and Japanese companies.
The TRA said the order is to be delivered by September next year, helping it replace some older carriages.
The TRA plans to replace 30 percent of its older carriages in the next 10 years, it said, adding that with a budget of NT$99.7 billion, the plan will enable the administration to buy 600 carriages for intercity trains, 520 for commuter trains, as well as 127 locomotives and 60 eco-friendly carriages for branch lines.
The intercity trains, also known as Tze-chiang Express trains, are to be used mainly to increase the transport capacity for trains heading to the east coast, the TRA said.
Based on the TRA’s plan, each intercity train will be made up of 12 carriages, up from eight, it said.
The TRA plans to designate one of the 12 carriages as a business-class coach, which will have fewer seats, which will all be larger than those in regular coaches.
The TRA said the new trains will arrive after 2018, when upgrades to the Suhua Highway are to become operational, reducing demand for railway services.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS