《TAIPEI TIMES》 TRA to start testing new custom electric trains

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

The Taiwan Railways Administration （TRA） is to start testing the first set of customized EMU3000 electric trains that arrived at the Port of Hualien yesterday morning, the agency said, adding that the trains would be ready for the Lunar New Year holiday.

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The new intercity model was customized for tourism, and its operation was to be outsourced to travel agencies, but the agency decided to operate and manage the train itself.

“An EMU3000 train has 538 seats and can function as a tourism train or be used to transport passengers during national holidays. We welcome individuals, business travelers and travel agencies to charter the train as well,” TRA Deputy Director Feng Hui-sheng （馮輝昇） said, adding that many people were asking when the train will begin to operate.

Chen Shih-ben （陳詩本）, head of the TRA’s rolling stock department, said that three more sets of customized EMU3000 trains, which include a bar counter in business-class carriages, are to arrive by the first half of next year.

“We changed the design of the business-class carriage to install four seats in a row, with two seats on each side of the aisle, instead of having three seats in a row with one seat on one side and two on the other,” Chen said.

The customized trains are to replace the push-pull Tze-Chiang-class trains operating between New Taipei City’s Shulin District （樹林） and Hualien County, and are to carry group ticket passengers between Shulin and Hualien, and Shulin and Taitung County, the agency said.

Local governments can also charter the trains, it added.

The Japanese designers decorated the trains with a mix of red, blue, green and yellow to represent Taiwan and Taiwanese, with the colors signifying passion, intelligence, tranquility and abundance, it said.

It has also finalized plans to renovate two sets of EMU500 trains and turn them into tourism trains, which would mainly be intended for passengers traveling for no more than two hours or less than 100km, it said.

The agency would outsource the operation of the trains, set to start running by the end of next year, to travel agencies, it added.

One is to be called “Sea Wind,” which is to operate along the west coast, while the other, “Mountain Mist,” would operate along the east coast, it said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES