Technical Considerations in Electrical and Mechanical System Design of Taipei Mass Rapid Transit System Extension Projects

Since the first rapid transit system of 10.9 km was opened to public of Taipei, Taiwan in 1996, the Taipei metropolitan area mass rapid transit, MRT, network has been extended up to more than 76.5 km and is still on the way of extension. The advent of advanced communication technologies and the experience from operation agent give chance as well as challenge to the system extension and upgrade. In this paper the system enhancement through using the new advanced communication technologies to improve the service, safety and functionality of the system is addressed. In addition, the unique challenges in front of extending and integrating the existing system with the new system is also addressed, especially, on the system identification and verification of existing automatic train control system for system retrofit, and the compatibility of train running cross line. Moreover, mitigating the disturbance to normal service of existing system during the extension is discussed; the activities being taken to ensure the success of the extending and upgrading project are presented.