Well after a couple of days with the new MRT line it might be a bit too early for this thread but I’ll take a shot at it anyways…
Who fucked up??? My gf is blaming the companies (her exact words was “that French company”) that built it, her opinion is that only a Japanese company can build a MRT system that works in Asia.
I’m more inclined to blame the Taipei City Council (or whoever ordered it) since I’m quite sure that the companies that built it would have told them before they built it how much people that would be able to use it without chaos. Hence, IMHO someone in the city gov. really fucked up when they calculated how many that where going to use it, or alternatively just didn’t give a rats ass because they where making money of it on the side…
If anyone have any real proof on who that fucked up please post it, or if by any chance anyone actually likes it please tell me why.
Mr. Lappy :fume:
Ohh, and by the way, mod if you think this should be added to any other thread or moved somewhere else please do so, I wasn’t sure where to put it.
what was the fuck-up? It looks like it’s working perfectly as intended. The specs are generated by Taiwan, not by the French (who did not build it: Matra, now part of Siemens) or the Canadians (who did: Bombardier). Blame the initial planners of the brown MRT line 20 plus years ago if anybody.
Ahh, thank you. Now I know what to tell the gf about the “French” company, so Taiwan gave the specs.
But who thought up the brilliant idea to add on to the brown line that was already full during rushhours (I’m not talking about 2 to 5pm). I’ve tried it off rushhour and I enjoyed it as well. Can it really just be the first day riders that are cramping up the system?
The only “problem” with the brown line is that it uses tiny monorail cars. They couldn’t have built the new line with different cars because the existing stations couldn’t have handled them. What could the French company, or any other culprit, have done other than use the specs of the existing track?
[quote=“Lappy”]Ahh, thank you. Now I know what to tell the gf about the “French” company, so Taiwan gave the specs.
But who thought up the brilliant idea to add on to the brown line that was already full during rushhours (I’m not talking about 2 to 5pm). I’ve tried it off rushhour and I enjoyed it as well. Can it really just be the first day riders that are cramping up the system?[/quote]
its only a medium transit line and therein lies the root of the problem; its only meant to carry passengers out to wanfang and muzha and as such works well…but until they finish the other lines it has to link up to, and meet the feeds from, the nangang mass transit line. just poor planning and poor foresight and nothing at all to do with Matra or Bombardier; they bid to the specs as released by DORTS.
once again the temporary solution is to run shuttle buses along fuxing north road to zhongxiao-fuxing station…
Remember the brown line was thought about and decided upon decades ago. IT may later prove to be shortsighted to use a medium capacity system. BUt the decision was made decades ago. IT was supposed to be all Matra. Bombardier was the only other company capable of finishing the project as originally intended (if Matra is not to be involved).
I think the only mistake was that Matra was not invited back to finish the original project as people have gotten used to their railcars. But as it is, I am sure it will pan out for what it is
They sunk a Billion into the Muzha line (at least) and now have sunk another Billion finishing it up to Neihu (at least) .THere is no backing down now. An underground system may not have been feasible for the Neihu area or was thought to be way too expensive for the number of people then projected to ride on it.
They are talking about increasing the runs and I think that is their back up plan during rush hours. Bombardier’s moving block management system can be racked up for more runs.
the fact that they ordered over 200 cars for the line from bombardier probably means that they expect to run more trains, as the muzha line only had a little over 102 cars. and those too will join the completed line when they are reprogrammed to run on bombardiers operating system. SO a total of over 300 cars will run the complete line. I think that means quite a few runs will be available. Can you imagine 150 cars per direction running at one time? I hope the management system can handle all that.
I think they will be able to move a lot of people when its all up and running.
The bid from the company who did the original Muzha line, and who holds the patents on some of the design, was too high. The government went with a cheaper bid. (Gee, what a surprise.) The design of the company who got the bid isn’t totally compatible with the original design. It will take time and money to sort out, and the government is taking a wait-and-see stance to see how urgent it is and how much money will have to be spent.
THis news report in Taiwanese talked bout a couple who got split up because the doors closed too fast. haha. the husband got on and the wife got left behind, but she came on the next train after 3 minutes so he didnt have to get divorced after all. Seems the doors are autoclosed after 20 seconds. so u better be fast.
It does seem to me that the new carriages they’re using are actually narrower than the ones used before the Neihu Line extension. That might have been because they had to tunnel under the airport and it seems in order to save costs they may not have provided tunnels wide enough to keep the old carriages.
Still, it is early days yet and hopefully when they get the automatic running programme optimised the capacity will increase a bit
to be fair it is definitely faster than before. but to run at 90 second frequencies needs ruthless limits on stopping time at stations…bit hard to enforce at rush hour…on monday of course it was such chaos that at one point the trains were a massive 6 minutes apart…
all it needs is one idiot to get stuck in a door to slow down every train on the line i guess…
Last night from Nanjing/Fuxing at about 6:30pm was fine. People were lined up orderly, train came and filled up. I waited for the next one and it arrived less than 2 minutes later and almost completely empty.
Don’t complain about capacity … the system originally built in France was designed and is only running two cars at the time … Taipei had that redesigned to 4 cars … which proved to be a huge problem …
Oh, and in Paris the ride is much smoother … here the concrete was poured Taiwanese style … mamahuhu :s all the pillars had to be reinforced too …
Well, it seems that everyone else is completely satisfied with the system, so who am I to complain, me I found a buss system running underneath and that works for me so I guess everyone is happy.
So I guess they retired the Matra cars on the brown line? What a complete waste on taxpayers’ money. Why don’t they sell those cars and get a partial return on their investment.
Or the complaints about the HSR in the initial months. The MRT is one of the best public tranport systems in the world. I don’t think this is going to prove anything more than a startup hiccup.
me I found a buss system running underneath and that works for me so I guess everyone is happy.