TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A new speed control system is expected to be put in place across Taiwan’s rail system in late October at the earliest to prevent anything like the Puyuma Express incident from ever happening again.
A Puyuma Express train derailed on Oct. 21, 2018, in the eastern county of Yilan, claiming 18 lives in one of the country’s deadliest rail accidents. The disabling of the automatic train protection (ATP) system, which checks the speed of a train, was believed to be the cause of the tragedy.
The incident prompted the development of a backup speed management system by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) in collaboration with the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology. It will ensure a train runs at speeds not exceeding 60 kilometers per hour and activates a brake if the train does so while the ATP is not functioning, according to TRA.
TRA has procured 400 units of the system, which cost NT$245 million (US$8.76 million) to build. It has been fitted on 52 Puyuma and Taroko express trains, ready to be put to service following a third-party verification process, wrote UDN.
All of the rail trains will be equipped with the mechanism by March 2023. Its installation is likely to see Taiwan Railways switch back to the single-driver system for more efficient manpower management from the dual-driver arrangement implemented in the wake of the Puyuma accident, wrote CNA.
