Repair work on malfunctioning signals at a railway crossing in Changhua County has been completed, with services returning to normal at around noon Friday, according to the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA).
After continuous adjustment and testing, malfunctioning axle counters were repaired at 11:53 a.m., said Chou Tsu-te (???), who heads the TRA’s Electrical Engineering Department.
An axle counter is a device on a railway that detects the passing of a train between two points on a track, which is also used to switch on and switch off warning equipment at level crossings.
TRA workers began repairing malfunctioning signals and barriers at the railway crossing in Changhua’s Dacun Township, between Dacun and Yuanlin stations Thursday morning, and the work delayed long-haul services on the Western Trunk Line throughout the day.
A TRA employee at Yuanlin Station told CNA that there were delays of up to 40 minutes on Thursday, with the train operator helping affected passengers take alternative train or bus services.
Meanwhile, a local resident also said there had been problems with the signals and barriers at the crossing for three days before the repair work began, causing confusion among road users.
According to the train operator, about 47,000 passengers on trains running on the TRA’s mainline across the western part of Taiwan were affected during the repair work that took 28 hours to complete from 7:20 a.m. Thursday to noon Friday.
The repairs are only temporary, as the axle counters’ printed circuit boards may still need to be replaced at some point following inspections by engineers from the system’s manufacturer Siemens, Chou explained.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel