The high-speed rail system on Friday reached a milestone in carrying its 600 millionth passenger, 13 years after it was launched, the operator said yesterday.
The passenger, who was traveling from Taipei’s Nangang Station (南港) to Kaohsiung’s Zuoying Station (左營), was awarded one year of unlimited travel on the system, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) said.
The four passengers who purchased the two tickets before and after the winning customer would receive vacation packages, the company said.
Photo provided by Taiwan High-Speed Rail Corp
As of Friday, the system had recorded 600.05 million passengers since its launch in 2007, THSRC said.
Last year, ridership on the high-speed rail system increased by 5.4 percent to 67.41 million, the company said.
In other news, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) yesterday said that a Taroko Express train traveling on the west coast is suspected to have hit a power supply facility yesterday morning, causing no injuries, but delaying numerous trains.
The TRA said that train No. 278, traveling from Yuanlin Station in Changhua County to Hualien Station in Hualien County, might have hit a cantilever on the overhead electricity line system between South Tanwen Signal Station and Zhunan Station in Miaoli County at about 8am.
The impact shattered the glass in the train driver’s cabin and the window of the No. 5 carriage, the TRA said.
Passengers were transferred to train No. 170 at Zhunan Station, which took them to Shulin Station in New Taipei City.
Passengers were then transferred to another train traveling to Hualien.
The incident affected about 1,570 passengers on six trains, causing delays totaling 80 minutes, the TRA said.
The TRA said it is investigating the cause of the incident.
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