Is that available online?
Yep: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/07/11/2003448368
[quote]An announcement came over the loudspeaker that there had been an incident and that passengers should wait. Announcements, repeated every few minutes, were in Mandarin only. Several announcements were made over the next 20 minutes requesting that passengers wait “patiently.” At 25 minutes, the power and air conditioning suddenly went off. There was no announcement as to how long passengers would be expected to wait. After 30 minutes, and after receiving no instructions from MRT staff, three male passengers pried open the doors and stepped outside.
A female MRT employee ran up to the carriage from Gangqian Station. The men asked if the passengers should get off and walk to the station. She said “yes” in an exasperated tone, as if this were obvious, despite the fact that the last instruction to be issued was “wait patiently” on their own.
The staffer disappeared and no one else came to assist. Passengers alighted from the carriage, helping the infirm and elderly, before walking slowly between the two tracks back to the station. The sheer number of passengers meant that it took at least 20 minutes for them to reach Gangqian Station, no more than 200m away.
[/quote]
A Taiwanese total clusterfuck blown out of all proportion by a story-starved media?
Total non-news as usual. 
The real story? A brand new transit line has early teething troubles, leading to a breakdown. Passengers opened the doors and walked the track back the short distance to the nearest station. End of story. The rest is typical Taiwanese histrionics. Don’t get suckered into the hype!
Yeah, I have to say, that if I see an hour wait for something, I’ll search out an alternative that’s quicker.
That Friday, seeing that the trains were down, I found out which bus was headed where I was going and was on the first one that stopped by without a wait. Oh, but I did have to walk an extra 5 minutes because it left me a couple blocks from my final destination, lol. The delay was not very significant compared to if I had just taken the MRT.
[quote=“sandman”]A Taiwanese total clusterfuck blown out of all proportion by a story-starved media?
Total non-news as usual.
The real story? A brand new transit line has early teething troubles, leading to a breakdown. Passengers opened the doors and walked the track back the short distance to the nearest station. End of story. The rest is typical Taiwanese histrionics. Don’t get suckered into the hype![/quote]
Sorry, then. I guess I just watch too much news. 
Plus the only thing that has ever gotten me close to a fouth-floor height was when my cat fell off the balcony and I had to play Spiderwoman to get him.
You have no idea what I feel when I see the pics/video of people walking up on those tracks. My stomach does back flips.
And I still have a bad feeling about all this rush. 3 more weeks to get the computer system in line?! Why couldn’t they wait to open, then.
The KMT/DPP/foreigners* fucked it up.
- delete as appropriate ad nauseum
Is it too much to ask for MRT authorities to have a safety SOP to deal with such issues immediately upon happening. Why did no MRT personnel walk down to the stranded vehicle to support the passengers? Why no clear communication between control station and stranded vehicle? Recorded messages are not what I have in mind.
For me I would be very relunctant to jump onto the track area. Is there no high voltage areas which should not be brushed up against? Is it so completely safe that passengers can simply jump out and make their way to the station? If I was stranded there an no MRT personnel walked down there to talk to us my first assumption would be that perhaps not so good to go walking around in the track area.
I was one of the later people to get off my train, but by that time there were probably 4-5 MRT people helping people to the station. Even if you are walking high above the street, you are still not very close to the edge. The platform up there is pretty wide, I would say that its about comparable to 3-4 car lanes width. The walkway is in the very center of that, its not like you’re teetering on the edge. As I grew up riding the El in chicago, my biggest concern was electrocution. I only walked on areas where other people had walked ahead of me. The MRT people were walking around nonchalantly without paying too much attention where they stood, so it didn’t seem like it was that dangerous. In my mind I was thinking of that scenario in Jurassic park where the kid is climbing the electric wire fence and at the same time somebody is turning on the electricity switch by switch. I was hoping there wasn’t anybody at the MRT turning switches while we were out there.
While there is some danger of falling off, its not like there’s a steep drop. The trains kind of drive in a trough:
[_/TT_/]
_YY_/
III
You would have to climb over that edge to fall off.
besides its only dangerous if you stepped on the 3rd rail and the power is on or if u fall off (its nearly 4 stories high) . The first instance likely wont hurt but the second will, especially when you get creamed by a bus that happens by after your fall.
Perhaps it was just the angle of the camera shot. But there are railings, and they’re walking in the center of the track…it’s no worse than walking on a footbridge.
More histrionics. It is not nice of course, but if the line breaks down what else to you expect? How else are the people going to get off the train and into the station? Please tell me.
When the line breaks down in London people often have to walk down dark tunnels.
edit: they were not even walking on a thin space. Seems like it was about as scary as walking on a regular footbridge.
No political agenda there.
You were saying 30 minutes before. How long was it really, allowing for the exaggeration of the news channels?
Of course people could have taken taxis or regular buses, or even walked. This is what happens in London where no shuttle buses are provided in similar situation.
Yes I know the Neihu line broke down. I’m not sure what that has to do with Nari.
Generally, the Taipei MRT has an excellent record for safety and reliability.
Edit: And that compensation seems more that generous. Comparison with London again, compensation would be refund of ticket cost.
New projects often have teething problems. That is why I specifically refereed to new sections of the London Underground.
For example: look up Jubilee line extension, brand new but had major problems when it opened, also Docklands Light Railway. Other examples Heathrow Terminal 5, Hong Kong Airport. In comparison the Neihu line seems to have had a relatively smooth opening.
I don’t know whose hands have been greased. This kind of thing is likely to happen on large projects everywhere though.
Someone else made the rather startling claim that the majority of the money had been embezzled, which I find harder to believe.
I don’t believe anything in the Taipei Times.
The MRT has an excellent safety record, and it of course has always had an emergency response procedure. It could not be built or get insurance otherwise.
More hysteria I am afraid.
Not hysteria, just experience from chabudoism and the rule of nepotism against talent -and consequences thereof…
Well, as Petrarch said, some attendants did help the elderly and the children, but they should have done it better. Some people as you said, had to walk 20 meters, others 200. I see everyday how they deal with blind people: they send even the cleaning lady to seat him/her on the car and that’s all. There wouldn’t be so much “hysteria” or complaining if someone with people skills or an SOP was in place.
I wouldn’t read too much of a political agenda, as this incident has received criticism from a broad audience. Most of the criticism, much to my surprise, came from TVBS. CTi and San li -more moderated. I’ll leave the link here for the article on the emergency response team:
[quote]The Taipei City Government formed an emergency response team yesterday to handle problems on the MRT Muzha and Neihu lines, and said it would refuse to pay the NT$3 billion (US$90 million) balance it owes the line’s builder if it fails to help solve the system’s malfunctions.
[/quote]
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2009/07/13/2003448550
So they are focusing on backups and technicalities, but not service. They do have emergency SOPs -they have a museum in site about them, buy the way- but as with all laws here, application is flaky.
And yes, as Petra says, knowing chabudou, even as the breakdown is attributed to power failure, one miscommunication is too close and awful to contemplate…
My reference to Nari was that when Nari caused a mayor MRT closure, it was a navigational disaster, even though they were planty of buses to use. The sheer amount of traffic avoided by teh existence of teh MRT is mind boggling… until it breaks down and you come face to face that it is a vital need of our collective lives. So an accident that clses down two lines -Muzha and Neihu- is a logistical catastrophe because of the sheer volume of users, who overwhelm teh otehr means of transportation, being taxi or buses or others. To have a good comaprison with London, we would need to know what percentage uses teh metro system, and when there is a breakdown, hwo extensive it is to affect transportaion in all senses.
And footbridge or even pederstrian overpasses, have barriers on the sides. I do not think people will fall and bounce off as Tommy says but at least getting a foot stuck somewhere can be painful.
Dunno much about London subway system, but a bit about Heathrow -our trainer worked from there, and she told us to avoid it for our sanity’s sake.
I am actually surprised that you do not believe us when we tell you the level of embezzement in these proyects, especially from people who have actually worked in these proyects. More research should be doen on this issue, actually.
Someone suggested ripping out the seats. I second that. But for another reason. They are utterly uncomfortable. Maybe it’s because I am a bit taller than the average local, but I think they are very poorly designed.
Yes there would, that is the nature of the Taiwanese media. It’s a small island, not much to report, so even the smallest issue can get blown into an incident of huge proportions. Strangely you were complaining before that the blue media was trying to ignore the issue.
Staff “should have helped better” seems like a hopelessly vague and meaningless criticism. How exactly should they “helped better”? How else could people get off the trains and into the stations other than by walking along the tracks?
As for the emergency response team, you seemed to imply that this was a group of people who could provide assistance in case of emergencies. In fact it appears it is just a committee to respond to the incident, indeed it would be strange to form such a committee before any incident had happened.
No understand.
Doesn’t the MRT have a very good safety record? All you are doing is contemplating the possibility of an accident in the future.
Isn’t it one line, from the zoo straight through to Nangang?
Anyway you should experience the chaos in London when one line breaks down. Multiply that many times when the whole system is closed due to a strike. London is much more reliant on the tube that Taipei is on the MRT. In Taipei most people have scooters, and the taxis are cheap and plentiful (although London’s bus system is better).
A previous poster said you would have to climb over to fall over. Maybe you should stop your embarrassing histrionics about certain death now.
Good to avoid it if you can, but then if you want to fly long-haul to the UK it is almost certain you will end up there.
I would certainly expect a little greasing of the bureaucratic wheels, but I haven’t seen any evidence of any large scale embezzlement. Please show me if you have any evidence.
Maw, I mean that more help should have been given to parents with kids and elderly, that’s all. As to the hystrionics that you say, I’ll just say that it is more the realization that too many things could have gone wrong that day, on such a “simple” incident, and that a service that as you have pointed out, has such a “good” record, should be more prepared to handle.
The first hours, there was little said, my vote is on saving face, but I concede there was not much to talk about. But interesting as time has gone by, more analysis is being done in the media. Filling up space? Maybe. But they are still on track.
Yes, Neihu and Muzha is a single line now, but the Muzha line, by itself, was working fine until the merge. So, basically, you have two bits coming together.
There is a hall where the MRT demos its safety procedures. My questions is whether these procedures pertain only to the technical part and not the taking care of people part -an statement which I have said 3 times already.
As to the evidence, my, do I need to show receipts? A bit of search would do.
And even Heathrow is avoidable… with planning. Or at least, the pain of losing the baggage…
…i got home today with no problem, 1st time in a week, hurrah!
…that said there are obviously problems still, trains keep having “hiccups”…stopping just outside stations, doors opening only after delay, doors re-opening after closing…let’s hope they can iron out the ray davies…
[quote=“Icon”]Maw, I mean that more help should have been given to parents with kids and elderly, that’s all. As to the hystrionics that you say, I’ll just say that it is more the realization that too many things could have gone wrong that day, on such a “simple” incident, and that a service that as you have pointed out, has such a “good” record, should be more prepared to handle.
[/quote]
Yes lots of things “could” have gone wrong, but apart from some disruption and inconvenience to the travelling public nothing of any note did happen. The MRT company seem to handle everything perfectly adequately.
Being late to collect the brats from the anqinban hardly counts as a major catastrophe.
Why would a TV station care about saving face for the MRT? And if they cared about saving face so much, why did they report the story ad naseum afterwards?
This story is interesting?
MRT line breaks down, people have to find another way to get home, sensationalist media goes crazy, next “big” news story appears, everyone forgets about it.
[quote]Yes, Neihu and Muzha is a single line now, but the Muzha line, by itself, was working fine until the merge. So, basically, you have two bits coming together.
There is a hall where the MRT demos its safety procedures. My questions is whether these procedures pertain only to the technical part and not the taking care of people part -an statement which I have said 3 times already.[/quote]
Do you actually know anything about the safety procedures for the MRT? Or are just idling speculating that there is no “taking care of the people part”?
You don’t need receipts, but you could at least tell me who is alleged to have embezzled money and how much they embezzled…
Nearly all long-haul flights go to Heathrow, avoiding it is likely to require another change of planes. And it has the cheapest and easiest transport links into London.
[quote=“shifty”]Re: Taipei MRT, Neihu Line: Who f***ed up?
The OP is obviously operating under the misconception that the new transit line was somehow intended to help citizens and facilitate public transportation; it was not.
The Neihu MRT line was designed as series of photo ops and pocket lining-money grabbing - back door deals to let politicians play grab ass and smile for the cameras and so that their rich cunt business contacts/friends/cronies/family members could embezzle the majority of the money… all the while everybody could congratulate themselves on a job well done.
Nobody fucked up it was executed perfectly.[/quote]
Thank you for clarifying that to me, here I had the idea that it was supposed to be “for the people, by the people”, when in reality it was “for my nephew, by the person holding the governments money”. There are some great photo ops (not only for the politicians but also for the people riding the line), but I wonder what would happen if somebody really gets hurt.
I now take the bus but the bear said:
No, I agree that waiting to be let out for an hour is not the end of the world but for gods sake, after turning off the air conditioning would it be to much to send a person from the staff over to the train and tell people to start leaving the train??
That being said, hope that can get it moving again without problems, the less people using scooters on the roads the less of a chance that they will scratch the car I’m driving (those few days when I’m actually driving instead of using public trans).
Have you ever taken the Muzha line and sat in the front seats of the front car, looking out at the tracks? There are two wells where the trains run, with a walkway between them for maintenance and emergencies. There are barriers on either side. To fall off, you’d have to walk across the tracks and climb over the railing.
Where is this third rail Tommy referred to? I’d like to not touch that. Ever.