Repairs to a Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) line damaged in a landslide in New Taipei City on Friday would take five days longer than expected, leaving it closed to traffic until Sunday, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
Progress on repairing the damaged section of the line between Rueifang (瑞芳) and Houtong (猴硐) stations has been hampered by poor weather and the risk of further landslides, Lin said.
As a result, only 600m2 of 10,000m2 of earth and rock were removed on Saturday, and, weather permitting, more than 2,000m2 was expected to be cleared yesterday, he said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
It could take three to four days to complete the work and more delays are possible if weather conditions are poor, he added.
Express trains between Shulin Station in New Taipei City and Yilan Station in Yilan County, as well as local trains between Rueifang and Houtong stations, have been suspended since the incident, the TRA said.
However, traffic relief measures were working smoothly, with more than 60,000 passengers transported to their destinations on 3,804 intercity buses, he said.
Buses traveling on the Chiang Wei-shui Freeway (Freeway No. 5) from Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) to Yilan’s Suao Township (蘇澳) have been departing every 10 minutes, Lin said, adding that another 1,972 buses were to be made available yesterday.
A rockfall was also reported on a section of track between Keelung and Cidu (七堵) stations around noon yesterday, causing train delays in the region, the TRA said.
Operations on affected sections of the line returned to normal at about 1pm, with about 10,000 passengers affected, it said.
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