Services on all Taipei MRT metropolitan railway system lines except the Wenshan-Neihu (Brown) Line were reduced starting yesterday amid a steep drop in passenger numbers due to COVID-19, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) announced on Sunday.
Average wait times during off-peak weekday hours — those outside the 7am to 9am and 5pm to 7:30pm time periods — on the Tamsui-Xinyi (Red), Bannan (Blue) and Zhonghe-Xinlu (Orange) lines have increased by between 15 and 30 seconds, TRTC said.
Train frequency during these times on the Songshan-Xindian (Green) Line has been reduced from one every five to seven minutes to one every six to eight minutes, and from every nine to 10 minutes for the Circular (Yellow) line.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
On weekends and public holidays, train frequency before 10am and after 8pm has been reduced from one every 4 minutes and 45 seconds to one every nine minutes and 30 seconds on the Red and Blue lines.
Train frequency on the Yellow Line over the weekend and public holidays has been cut from every nine minutes to every 10 minutes.
TRTC said that service frequency on all other lines during these times would remain unchanged, and that more trains might be added in the event of a larger-than-expected increase in passengers.
In light of rising local COVID-19 infections, the company also asked passengers to social distance while riding the trains and to wear a mask at all times.
Taipei’s MRT carried about 1.3 million commuters in the first week of the month, which fell to 1.2 million in the second week and 1.15 million by the third week, TRTC data showed.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
RSS