Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp and Hitachi Toshiba Supreme Consortium (HTSC) yesterday signed a second supplementary deed to a procurement contract to build new-generation cabins.
The high-speed rail operator purchased 12 sets of rolling stock from Hitachi Toshiba in May 2023. The two companies then spent nearly two years working on the internal designs of the high-speed train cabins, with the first supplementary deed signed last year.
The second supplementary deed was signed by Taiwan High Speed Rail chairman James Jeng (鄭光遠) and HTSC deputy head of Asia and Japan Takuya Yamakawa at the Grand Hotel in Taipei, with Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) serving as the witness.
Photo: CNA
With the signing of the second supplementary deed, the high-speed rail operator finalized the internal design of the train cabin, allowing HTSC to begin manufacturing the rolling stock.
“That means we have entered the next milestone of rolling stock production,” Jeng said.
“The first batch of the new-generation rolling stock was scheduled to be delivered by the end of next year, but Mr Yamakawa just told me that the delivery could be a few months earlier than scheduled. That would give us more time to test the new trains, making them safer,” he said.
The new trains are scheduled to enter into operation by the second half of 2027, the company said in a statement.
The first and second supplementary deeds helped add a few passenger-friendly facilities and designs to the new train cabins, including upgrading passenger seats to the same specifications of the NS700S Series Shinkansen high-speed trains and installing charging ports at seats. New trains would be equipped with an active shock absorber system.
A noise-reduction device is also to be installed in the passage areas between trains, which can reduce noises and absorb shocks, the company said.
The new train would also have faucets, hooks for clothes and baby seats in nursery rooms, and six spots for passengers in wheelchairs, with devices to secure wheelchairs.
Currently, each train has four spots for wheelchairs.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese