Railway buffs next week would have the opportunity to view an electric locomotive recently procured by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) when it is unveiled in Pingtung County, the state-run agency said yesterday.
The TRA said it would display one of 68 E500 electric locomotives at its Chaozhou Rolling Stock Depot in the county on Saturday, and people would have an opportunity to take photographs.
The 68 locomotives, manufactured by Japan’s Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions Corp, were delivered on Sept. 17 and are expected to begin commercial operations as Juguang and Ziqiang express trains in April next year, the agency said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Railways Administration
The procurement of the locomotives is part of the TRA’s NT$100 billion (US$3.09 billion) investment plan, which focuses mainly on the purchase of approximately 1,300 new rolling-stock units from 2015 to next year.
Under the plan, TRA had ordered 102 locomotives — 68 electric E500s from Toshiba and 34 diesel-electric R200s from Stadler Rail of Switzerland.
The Stadler trains, which would be used for freight and military purposes, were unveiled in July and are likely to start operations by the end of this year, the TRA said.
When the Stadler contract was signed in 2019, the Swiss manufacturer said it was its first major tender for rolling stock in the Asia-Pacific region from its base in Europe.
“The locomotives will be used in demanding mountainous topography — similar to that of Switzerland — and in extreme climatic conditions,” then-Stadler CEO Thomas Ahlburg was quoted as saying in a news release at the time.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS