So during the training do you drill the safety procedures into them?
Do you make them know the train schedules?
Do you make sure your foreman watches for safety violations and report/coach/terminate employees who willfully ignore them constantly?
When you hire someone, or contract work out to someone, do you vet them to make sure they follow those procedures? Does companies you hire to do the work do any of the above?
See when there’s a pattern of behavior, then the problem lies with the organization. Either they constantly hire unsafe workers (possibly because they do it cheap), or does nothing to inform/train them with safety regulations, or does not reprimand/fire workers who ignore them, then there’s a problem.
Considering that TRTC and THSR has none of these issues (not to say they did not have safety violations, but not to the same frequency as TRA), yes I would say there are problems with the organization.
Also Puyoma trains aren’t supposed to vibrate like the last time I rode them. This points to neglected maintenance. This is an organizational problem.
Even if HSR trains are not the same type of trains, those are new/modern trains and HSR trains do not vibrate at all, despite going almost as fast as aircraft.
TRA Director-General Tu Wei (杜微) said Sunday [i.e. today] that the TRA will terminate its contract with Hon Yang Construction Co. (虹揚營造有限公司) after one of its workers was hit by a northbound Taroko express train near Yilan on Saturday.
According to the TRA and Railway Police Bureau, the 52-year-old worker, surnamed Wang (王), is believed to have been crossing the tracks as a shortcut to another platform when he was hit by the approaching train.
The worker was conscious when he was taken to a nearby hospital. He suffered chest pain, a four-centimeter head laceration, and is likely to have fractured his left shoulder, according to medical personnel at Yilan County’s fire bureau.
Tu said the worker’s actions constituted a violation of the company’s contract with the TRA and it will be fined NT$300,000 for breaching safety regulations.
The TRA will also blacklist the contractor and not work with it in the future, he added.
No, most stations have it built into the platform. That pile of rock looks like it could fall over and break something.
The end towards the track is hanging by about half an inch. A good shake would cause the rocks to slide into the tracks. Would probably damage trains at the very least.
I took the Taroko a few days ago, rattles and vibration on curves, can’t even rest properly. Gosh, it’s not like this before on both Taroko and Puyuma. I know the orange Tze-Chiang isn’t like this because they’re slower and didn’t tilt on curves, that one gives me a better ride.
TRA can’t do that, at least not for the entire system. I am not sure they have that much money. But they have begun elevating tracks along Taichung for some reason, and added a bunch of stations too.
But it would enhance safety, especially where idiots may leave trucks parked on crossing, and killing people, rock slides blocking tracks, etc. but it simply isn’t feasible to elevate all of TRA’s tracks.
Maybe those high speed trains should slow down along surface tracks and only go fast for elevated tracks.
But on another note I did see someone post about riding Taroko/Puyoma trains and commented on how much it vibrated, much more so than the Zhichan trains.
Track separation in cities is crucial for better traffic, while also reducing accidents. This is why they’re doing it in the big cities.
The HSR is built separately because TRA tracks aren’t feasible for such a speed range, especially because of its narrow gauge compared to HSR’s standard gauge.
TRA bought Puyuma/Taroko to increase speed service and capacity in the east, probably because it’s not feasible to build HSR in the east. (Not sure about this, how’s the Yilan extension doing?)
