Trains for the Sanying light-rail being built in New Taipei City were presented to the media yesterday, which have safety features that were added following a fatal accident on the Taichung MRT in May.
Cameras at the front of each train would work in tandem with an intrusion detection system in the event of an obstruction on the tracks, officials from the New Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems told a news conference in Sansia District (三峽), which the new line is to serve along with Yingge (鶯歌) and Tucheng (土城) districts.
The cameras would allow operators in the control room of the driverless system to view real-time images of trains on the system, the officials said.
Photo: CNA
The cameras were added after an incident on the Taichung MRT on May 10, in which a train plowed into a crane boom that had fallen onto the tracks, killing one passenger, they said.
Other new additions include a more easily accessible emergency stop button, widened gangway connections and a button for platform staff to open train doors to allow an evacuation, the officials said.
A two-car train displayed on Wednesday arrived in Taiwan on Aug. 10 and is the first of 29 units manufactured by Hitachi Rail Italy for use on the Sanying line, which is to connect Dingpu Station on the Taipei MRT Bannan (Blue) Line, the under-construction Taoyuan Metro green line and the MRT Taoyuan Airport Line.
Each train on the 14.29km medium-capacity Sanying line, which is to have 12 elevated stations, has 50 seats and can accommodate a maximum of 330 passengers, the New Taipei City Government said.
The Sanying line is expected to open in 2025, with construction delays pushing the date back from late this year.
Officials attributed the delays to the COVID-19 pandemic and disputes over land expropriations, as well as labor reforms in 2017 limiting the number of hours contractors can work.
Once services begin, travel times between Yingge and Taipei would be reduced by 20 minutes, the department said.
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
RSS