AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE ALISHAN ACCIDENT

The Alishan railway accident earlier this week, which took five lives and injured more than 100 people, is the eleventh one at the famous tourist destination in nearly 50 years. And although the local authorities have said that no human error is involved this time, many believe that it is more than a mere act of God.

The Alishan railway management team is under the COAs Forestry Bureau with about 140 staff.

Some lawmakers believe that, the trains are shouldering the image of tourism and its management should be upgraded.

The Alishan alpine railways is turning 100 years old this year, which was to transport the lumber during the Japanese occupation period. In 1962, the trains were converted to passenger trains and became a popular tourist attraction.

However, railway experts believe that the failure to upgrade the hardware and management style is one of the causes of major accidents and is threatening the safety of the service.

The train service was once out sourced, leading to a loss of professional staff, in addition, the short staffed management team doesnt even have enough train track inspectors, while the supervising department is not the Ministry of transportations and communications, theres less chance for the management to be professional.

in order to carry more passengers, more trains were added to each service, but which added blind spot for the conductor of the last section of the train.

With the opening of the Maniland tourists, the train service is put to the test.

The accident in 2003 happened due to brakes malfunction, but it could also be the fact that the train was carrying too many passengers over the capacity.

The recent accident has been confirmed to be natural cause of the falling of the tree branch, but still, the MOTC is going to inspect the safety of the train tracks.

The Alishan alpine train is operating at a loss right now, which is the main reason that the railway administration is not willing to take over.

The most important issue at hand is to consider how to keep the train service going but eliminate passengers concerns of safety issue and to turn the train service into a profitable one.

◆ 追蹤更多華視影音及圖文新聞：
1.用Plurk追蹤華視影音及圖文新聞：追蹤
2.用Twitter追蹤華視影音及圖文新聞：追蹤