TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Metro Taipei malfunction caused a train to skip three stops on Thursday morning (March 30), much to commuters’ confusion and worry.
The incident was shared to online forum PTT by user Huang Shin-wen, who wrote that at around 8:30 a.m., the train drove past the Nangang Software Park Station and Donghu Station. A passenger then pressed the emergency communication button to alert train operators.
“We had already passed two stations without stopping, but it sounded like the control center had not realized any abnormality. They even asked us where we were at the moment,” Huang wrote.
He added that as the train approached Huzhou Station, it finally slowed down. “It seemed that the control center finally intervened and started operating it. However, perhaps because they were too slow or there was an issue with manual operation, when the train stopped it was past the platform…," Huang explained.
According to Huang, when the train’s doors finally opened again, it was at Dahu Park Station.
Huang questioned that, considering the high frequency of trains on the Wenhu Line during rush hour, if a fellow passenger train had not alerted the control center staff about the incident, “Would the control center only realize what was going on only after we hit the previous train?”
In response to the incident and Huang’s concern, Metro Taipei wrote in a press release that all trains on the Wenhu Line are equipped with automatic train protection (ATP) technology, which ensures a safe distance between each train. At the time of the incident, the train’s ATP had been functional, it added.
The company apologized for the malfunction and vowed to investigate. It stressed that there were no systemic delays during the incident, writing that the feature controlling the train’s stopping at stations had been switched off, though it did not specify why.
(YouTube, Huang Shin-wen video)
