Taoyuan Airport traffic delays

[quote=“yyy”][quote=“nonredneck”][quote=“Abacus”][quote=“nonredneck”]

If they used a Japanese contractor, then how did they have all those electrical problems a year or two ago? Japanese are usually very good at quality and trying to avoid making mistakes, so I have to wonder who is actually doing the work.[/quote]

Great job stereotyping.

They might use a Japanese contractor but they didn’t import an entire work crew of 100’s or 1000’s to build it. And just because someone is Japanese doesn’t mean that they don’t make mistakes.[/quote]

Japanese are human, no disagreement there. They aren’t perfect, but they tend to plan better, try to avoid mistakes, and make their stuff last longer. Whereas Taiwanese just seem to throw stuff together with little planning (like how they built Taipei during the economic boom) Having to rip out the whole electrical system because of substandard wiring is something I would expect Taiwanese to do, but not Japanese. That is either a serious screw-up or some serious corruption on the part of the Japanese contractor. It can happen, but it’s not what I would expect.[/quote]
I met one of the Japanese engineers, a very nice fellow, and asked him in a friendly way how things were going with the project. Every trace of happiness vanished from his face. It seemed the most painful thing in the world for him to think about. “There are many problems.” :frowning:[/quote]

It happens with every project. Remember the Muzha line and the MATRA law suit? The HSR when Lee Deng-hui came back from Japan and suddenly told Siemens, “oh we’re going to bring in some of the Shinkansen system, just to fuck you guys up.”, or the Lafayette frigate purchase, eight suspicious deaths and counting on that one. The Taipei dome is another classic. The basic formula for Taiwan project management is: massive incompetence + massive greed = the mother of all clusterfucks.

Sad, even the lazy-as-fuck, corrupt-as-almighty Thais managed to get their airport link up and running over the course of a few years.

I think they had Japanese or Italians running the show.

Been a few problems of late, power failures etc.

But if the Thais can do it, then the Taiwanese can DEFINITELY do it. No (massive) disrespect to the Thais.

I feel there’s a few more guo-guang bus rides still to come then. Situation seems pretty farcical, given how well the MRT runs.

The Muzha line was very acrimonious. Matra and Dort (Department of Rapid Transit) ended up hating each other. They had to reinforce a lot of the pillars with a steel casing because of fears that they would fall apart in a quake. But then later Matra was bought up by Siemens and there are a lot of Siemens trains on the MRT> I think they are a bit better , smoother running than then Kawasakis. What you think? But the latest batch is again Kawasaki. MOst of the MRT main line trains seem to be Kawasakis (made in USA ).

Are the Matra trains all running along with the Bombardier trains on the MUzha line? There were problems when Bombardier was brought in to extend that line when Matra was either not asked to do it or refused. Don’t know why Dort couldn’t get Matra to do it since Siemens bought up Matra if it was the latter. I prefer the Matra trains on the Muzha line. They seem nicer then the Bombardier ones.

I agree that the (older) Matra trains on the Brown line are more comfortable than the idiotically laid out (newer) Bombardier ones with their massive blue seats and scads of wasted space. They are in my view the worst designed trains in the current MRT system.

However I don’t agree that the Siemens trains (on the heavy rail lines) are more comfy than the Kawasaki ones. Most of the latter seem to have better air circulation–it seems they studied the limitations of the older Siemens trains and made some adjustments.

Guy

I think the first batch or two was Kawasaki then came the Siemens, but now its back to Kawasaki.
I was comparing between the older Kawasakis versus the Siemens ones. I always felt the Siemens to be smoother. I am not sure I have been on the newer Kawasaki ones, since the last time I was on the MRT was in 2012.

[quote=“Baas Babelaas”]Sad, even the lazy-as-fuck, corrupt-as-almighty Thais managed to get their airport link up and running over the course of a few years.

I think they had Japanese or Italians running the show.

Been a few problems of late, power failures etc.

But if the Thais can do it, then the Taiwanese can DEFINITELY do it. No (massive) disrespect to the Thais.[/quote]
When you already have a railway that goes 95% of the way to the airport in a straight, flat line, how difficult is it to build an elevated line on top and add one turn at the end?

But never mind that. I just hope that once the Taoyuan Airport MRT is finished, the in-town check-in will be open to more than one airline (and still exist a few years later), the website won’t be full of “no content found” messages, the local line won’t have doors that sound like a gun firing every time they close, and the express line won’t need to be shut down for “maintenance” lasting [strike]one year[/strike] two years and counting… :unamused:

[quote=“yyy”][quote=“Baas Babelaas”]Sad, even the lazy-as-fuck, corrupt-as-almighty Thais managed to get their airport link up and running over the course of a few years.

I think they had Japanese or Italians running the show.

Been a few problems of late, power failures etc.

But if the Thais can do it, then the Taiwanese can DEFINITELY do it. No (massive) disrespect to the Thais.[/quote]
When you already have a railway that goes 95% of the way to the airport in a straight, flat line, how difficult is it to build an elevated line on top and add one turn at the end?

But never mind that. I just hope that once the Taoyuan Airport MRT is finished, the in-town check-in will be open to more than one airline (and still exist a few years later), the website won’t be full of “no content found” messages, the local line won’t have doors that sound like a gun firing every time they close, and the express line won’t need to be shut down for “maintenance” lasting [strike]one year[/strike] two years and counting… :unamused:[/quote]

Yeah, good points. The Bangkok airport line is truly bizarre.

Ah, I missed the irony :slight_smile:.

I’ve taken that Bangkok train a few times and not had a problem, but bow to your better knowledge :bow:.