Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) officials yesterday apologized for delays to the MRT system’s connection to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport that set the project completion date back by six months.
Bowing at a news conference, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Commuications Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁), Bureau of High Speed Rail Director-General Allen Hu (胡湘麟) and bureau chief engineer Chung Wei-li (鍾維力) apologized, saying that the launch date for the airport MRT line would be delayed.
It was the sixth delay since the project was announced in 2002. The project is to connect the airport directly to the MRT’s Taipei Main Station, stopping at Jhongli Township (中壢) and the Taoyuan High Speed Rail Station.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The MRT line is still undergoing trial runs and the primary reason for its delay is six of the 46 test items failing to meet contract standards, Hu told the news conference.
According to the contract, terminal-to-terminal MRT trains must travel at an average speed of 60kph, while trains that stop at each station must travel at an average speed of 45kph.
The trains currently travel at 57km and 42km per hour respectively, Hu said.
The speed has affected the expected time of arrival of trains on one-way trips, which was set at 35 minutes from Taipei Main Station to Taoyuan airport, the ministry said, adding that the line took 36 to 37 minutes to make a single one-way trip.
The time between trains, standing at three minutes and 15 seconds, does not meet the three minutes stated in the contract, Hu said.
While the bureau constructed the line, Taoyuan Metro Corp was expected to handle the line’s operations, the ministry said, adding that both sides were at odds on how to conduct simulated service and trial runs.
The bureau wanted Taoyuan Metro Corp to allocate more personnel for the trial runs in the hopes of becoming more familiar with the system, the ministry said, adding that the company was adamant that it would start simulated services only after all of the trial runs meet contract standards.
The ministry said that if all goes according to plan, the line could start operating at the end of the year, but due to previous letdowns it was not going to set a date for the commencement of services.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
RSS