It means that every minute, the step you’re on travels 39 meters. 
Sorry, couldn’t resist.[/quote]Thanks for that enlightening explanation. No, what I mean is, does anyone have any concept of that? When you hear that it moves at 39 m/min, do you say, “Oh my god, that’s so fast! I wish it was going at 27 meters a minute so I could rest easier nights.” Why are we given such information? It’s totally trivial.
I love how clean it is. I love the bad English signs in it. I love how it can take me to a good point where I can take a bus to get me to my specific destination. I think there’s an evolution for foreigners or at least one I’m hoping to complete soon.
When you get to Taipei, you take taxis everywhere. Then you find a place to live and start using the MRT. Then you get adjusted to the names of streets and take note of the busses that appear in both those areas and the places where you want to go and take busses. Then you figure out the routes and ways to get from point a to point b and get a scooter. Of course, some people just skip over steps 2 and 3.
I love brown line. I like watching the vehicles and people below as the train zooms by. And it provides some great hands-free surfing. Especially on that corner between Liuchang Li and the Technology Building, just as you leave the Technology Building station. I never touch the poles or the handles because I have seen too many people digging for gold and then grab them or cough onto their hands and grab them. Plus it’s a great way to challenge your balancing skills.
Actually, [color=red]you only think it’s trivial because you don’t have enough of it.[/color] 
The escalators in the MRT system, to be up to specifications, must provide not one but TWO speeds (39 meters per minute and 30 meters per minute, depending on operating conditions) and must further provide an automatic idle speed of just 12 meters per minute (so if you can make yourself invisible or unsense-able, you could take advantage of this slower speed if you wanted to). :shock:
The grooves on the step footplates have to be electrostatically coated at the factory. The handrail is embedded with steel wire to reduce stretching. And did you know the floor plates at either end where you enter and exit the escalator have to have parallel grooves on them? 
Mere pressed floorplate with a checkered pattern is not good enough for the MRT! 
It just goes on and on and ON…ooh, I’m feeling a bit strange just thinking about it all.
As for why you’re given that info…it’s because it’s spelled out in the bid tender and contracts: exactly what signs and notices must be posted, in what languages, on what type of sign materials, and where. But hey, knowledge is power, right???
I want you on my team the next time I play trivial pursuit, Ironlady. Of all the fascinating facts you mentioned, you didn’t explain the black brushes that line the sides of the escalators along the steps. If you think they provide free shoeshining service, think again. Here’s what they’re really for: the next time you step on dog poop in Taipei, just go in any MRT station and ride the escalator a few times. The brushes do wonders cleaning up the soles of your shoes. So, you can shine your shoes with them, but I wouldn’t.:shock:
Ooh, I’m glad you asked. 
:shock:
Those are called “brush guards”, and they are designed to provide tactile feedback to riders to avoid their feet or items they are carrying from scraping against the skirt (escalator-speak for the metal panel along the sides) and possibly getting pulled into the gap (escalator-speak for the gap between the side of the step and the skirt) and thence down into the innards (like the drive chains) and mauled (escalator-speak for getting ground up like hamburger.) (OK, the last one isn’t real escalator-speak. 
)
However, the dog-poop explanation sounds a lot better to me. 
Heelllpp! I need a healthier hobby!!! :shock:
The reasons for the numerous warnings on the escalators and the reminders over the PA, is that a year or two ago some stupid obasan, fell off and hurt herself. She wasn’t holding on and hadn’t noticed that she’d got to the bottom, but she still sued the MRT authorities, claiming that there wasn’t enough warning of the dangers. Probably one of the reasons she lost was beacuse there WERE warnings, but they put up more just in case.
Brian
What they should really warn people about are those turnstiles. A guy can easily get emasculated going through one, as the turnstile won’t turn until it registers the entry card. Common scenario: you see that your train is leaving in 20 seconds, and you think you hear the beep from the EZ pad, you hold up your stuff with your hands and try to run through the turnstile, and that’s when you find out the hard way why you should not take a frontal approach. My advice is approach it sideways, but if you’re used to a frontal approach, use your hand to push the bar instead of other body parts.
Unfolded bicycles are permitted on the London Tube, off peak, but not on all sections of all lines. See: Bicycles on the Underground. Also, “there is no restriction as such on folding bikes such as Brompton, Birdy et cetera,” it says here. You can also take your bicycle on the proper railway-sized North London Line and City Thameslink, oft ridden by Juba in days of yore.
This is also being discussed in another thread.
Using your hands is namby-pamby. Using the outside of your left thigh is cool.
something happening right now, 8 pm Sunday, at the MRT in Tamshui or something. I can’t understand the TV news. Somebody jump on tracks, or train derailed, or what? Major TVBS news story right now, live, SNG, or whatever they call it, and lots of police milling around. …
Cranky, Sandman, Iris, omni, amos, somebody who can understand Mandarin and saw the news tonight? What’s happened?
My favorite MRT story is when an older woman sat down next to me (what a joy that was that someone chose to sit next to the foreigner) while I was on my way home to Hsintien from work. I noticed her staring at me so I smiled at her and she smiled back. Then she asked me, “Are your eyelashes real? They’re so long!”. We wound up speaking in Mandarin and English about various things and I mentioned that I was interested in picking Mandarin back up so I could improve my speaking. She said, “You know, the best way to learn Mandarin is to date someone who speaks it.” and then proceeded to tell me about her son who she thought would be perfect for me. Me, a dark-skinned foreigner. I was so flattered by this woman that she thought of me as being worthy of dating her son. Anytime I am having a really bad Taiwan day, I think of that time on the MRT and how no matter how crappy the Taiwanese seem to be that day, that somewhere, there’s a woman who thinks that I am perfect for her son.
The one thing I think they could improve at the MRT stations is the reaction time of the card reading machines at the gates. In Hong Kong you can swipe through without a care, but here if you don’t wait a bit for the machine to read the card, the gate won’t unlock and you’ll injure yourself by running into the steel bar. Surely faster gates would let people get through more easily.
Later closing times would help too, perhaps 2 am would be appropriate, at least on weekends.
And while I’m at it, they should decorate different stations in different ways. I know that some of them are like that, especially in the eastern portion of the Nangang Line, but most of the stations look exactly alike, making it necessary to either listen to the announcements (which they don’t always play) or crane your neck looking out the window to see which station you’re at.
Yeah, I’m with you on that one. Having to look out of the window to see which station your at is a real bummer.
Coordinate the number of in and out gates with the number of people going in each direction.
Case in Point: Taipei Main Station during evening rush hour. More people enter during this time, but incredibly more of the turnstiles are set up for people exiting the station.
Here’s something you history buffs out there might be interested in. At the Pedestrian Mall in Hsimen station, there’s a photo exhibit–100 years of Formosa. On display are photos of Taipei and the rest of Taiwan, many from the Japanese colonial days.
How about those “convenient” new signs they have put in the Mucha line stations telling you how soon the next train is coming. Common sense dictates that you would put them at the station entrance so passengers would know if they need to hurry up the escalators or have time for a pee etc.
Where did they put them? On the platform.
My favourite MRT sign: “Don’t put your finger near the door”. Damn, I really wanted to do that!
I also love the nice, but wildly incongruous Victorian style street lamps they installed along parts of He Ping E Rd over a year ago. To date, they haven’t been turned on.
[quote=“formosa”]something happening right now, 8 pm Sunday, at the MRT in Tamshui (Danshui) or something. I can’t understand the TV news. Somebody jump on tracks, or train derailed, or what? Major TVBS news story right now, live, SNG, or whatever they call it, and lots of police milling around. …
Cranky, Sandman, Iris, omni, amos, somebody who can understand Mandarin and saw the news tonight? What’s happened?[/quote]
Not that I know more than a few mandarin words and phrases, but the shutdown was caused by what the kind lady in Xindian said (in Chinese) was a “power jump.” I assume she meant some kind of short-curcuit, but I’ve made an ass out of u and me so many times in the past that you shouldn’t believe a word I say.
thanks, Sandman, for the news update. I guess that what’s they call an “MRT-ma shoto” …
[quote=“Soddom”]How about those “convenient” new signs they have put in the Mucha (Muzha) line stations telling you how soon the next train is coming. Common sense dictates that you would put them at the station entrance so passengers would know if they need to hurry up the escalators or have time for a pee etc.
Where did they put them? On the platform.[/quote]
I digress. At least at Linguang and Da-An stations there are those signs at the front entrances. I don’t use the other stops frequently enough to notice where their signs are.
[quote=“Soddom”]My favourite MRT sign: “Don’t put your finger near the door”. Damn, I really wanted to do that![/quote]My favorite British MRT sign: “Mind the platform gap.” Translation for north Americans: Watch out for the platform gap.