Problem with the disco lights is that they are seizure inducing, andmight lead to accidental deaths, not to mention flared tempers.
Please note that while Taipei adds disco lights, kaohsiung is limiting the time the beautiful Dome of Light is lighted to save energy.
I can live with the swimming pool, the sort of baseball and basketball vibes…but their soccer field representation is horrendous. Plus, they will be gone in a month or two. No biggie.
Dome of light is such false advertising. It’s just a room with lights inside the ceiling.
It is a tourist attraction. Tourists are getting doped into visiting a dark room instead a room full of light. False advertising!
Seriously, the thing is a work of art. I do not understand why they did not do it originally with LEDs to start with.
Time traveling? The Yellow Line (Circular Line) isn’t scheduled to open until June 2018.
I just biked along the route this past weekend. It’s looking pretty good. The guideway is more or less complete except for a small stretch in Banqiao, and most stations have all their concrete poured, with internal fittings going on now. Looks like construction is still running full tilt. I wonder if they’ll be able to hit the mid 2018 date.
Obviously the new station codes are not serving their purpose. Even though the orange line is not labeled as such, all the stations along the line have a code that begins with an “O” (for orange obviously). Speaking of which, did anybody ever wonder where the O30s and O40s are? All the Luzhou stations are in the O50s.
… which means it’ll really open in 2021.
Source: 臺北市政府捷運工程局
The planned Xizhi → Minsheng line that will never see the light of day.
I’m all for saying no to a MRT line going through Minsheng community. Building one means ripping up a lot of those trees and we all know what will happen when trees starts getting ripped from the ground.
Xizhi already has commuter trains on the TRA line.
A completely random note after seeing Ranlee’s interesting post about the proposed Minsheng-Xizhi MRT line: a while ago, I was wandering through the vast recesses of Nanjing-Fuxing Station, when I came across a fascinating display in one of the mezzanine levels (don’t ask me which one) outlining the history of various planned MRT lines in Taipei.
Here’s what I recall from seeing this excellent display: apparently, when planning started in the 1970s, the government planners wanted a grid-like design, with north-south lines intersecting with east-west lines. Part of this initial vision remains at Taipei Main Station, where the Blue line and Red line intersect. But apparently some British consultant advised the planners that this arrangement will lead to unpleasant transfer points–and that building u-shaped lines that run parallel at certain point will enable smoother transfers at key stations.
Eventually, as we know, this is what (mostly) transpired, leading to the walk-across transfer points at key stations including Ximen and Dictator Hall.*
Guy
*Interestingly, the MRT authorities have quietly put “Nanmen” in parentheses at this station. I have no insider information (perhaps some forumosans do?), but it would not surprise me if the station is eventually simply renamed “Nanmen Station,” taking it back to its historical roots–and not being beholden to some ugly imposing structure built in the 1980s.
I’m curious as to how transferring would actually be made easier if the system was a web system instead of a grid system. Wouldn’t the stations just be in different places, but designed…similarly?
I believe the key point is having the lines run parallel at the transfer station (and not intersecting at right angles). From what I recall seeing in the display, the point made by the British consultant is that it’s much easier to do this with u-shaped lines as opposed to a grid.
Guy
That was a most excellent suggestion from that guy, the value of experience.
I’m not a fan of CKS, but I hope they don’t rename it Nanmen; too easy to confuse it with Xiaonanmen. Just like Zhongshan, there’re at least 3 stations that have Zhongshan in their name. Why not call it Liberty Square? It’s actually closer to the station than the actual CKS memorial.
Because they’ll spend all the taxpayer money to change out every reference to CKS Memorial Hall and change all the signs and then when the KMT wins down the line then they’ll spend a bunch of taxpayer money to put it all back.
Same thing with renaming CKS Memorial Hall.
Renaming Dictator Hall Station “Nanmen Station” would NOT lead to likely mix-ups with “Xiaonanmen Station.” Seriously, do you think X and N look anything alike for those reading the roman alphabet? And if readers of Chinese are inclined to skip a character when they read, the renaming of this station is the least of their worries.
Since we’re rolling here, I can name two more advantages to using the name “Nanmen”:
we already have a Ximen, a Beimen, and a Dongmen Station. Notice anything missing?
using the name “Nanmen” helpfully avoids the Dictator Hall / Liberty Square binary that polarizes the issue and leads to back-and-forth seesaw changes.
I rest my case. 
Guy
I like.tue idea of nanmen but it is certainly confusing the way it’s half done at present.
Reversing CKS to SKC might do the job. It won’t take too much time or cost much money. When kids ask what SKC means, you answer it stands for ‘System Killer, Chiang’.
We already have Bitan and Xiao Bitan on the same line, practically just one station away from each other.
Nanmen, Beimen… leave little confusion by comparison.