The Taiwan Railways Administration’s new EMU 900 series trains have undergone extensive testing and trial operations since they arrived from Korea on October 24 last year. They have now passed TUV Rheinland’s safety verification process ensuring that every aspect of their performance complies with the requirements for safe operation. The inaugural train departed on April 1 and each train will increase the capacity by about 40%.
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The new EMU incorporates accessibility features such as the Pink Light Receiver on priority seats. Pregnant women can use the Pink Light Transmitter to trigger the light and remind a non-priority occupant to give up the seat. Other features include self-adjusting cabin lighting, disabled access area, emergency wireless intercom for contacting the train conductor, and expanded bicycle storage space. The passenger seats were also designed, developed, and fabricated by a local company before being shipped in containers to Korea for installation. Onboard equipment such as the 500L water tank and pressurization equipment supplying the washrooms, the vacuum septic tank for the toilets, and the hygiene equipment were sourced locally as well.
The first two trains have been designated EMU 901 and EMU 902. Each EMU 900 train will consist of 10 carriages, including 5 motor cars and 5 trailer cars, making it the longest of all fixed-configuration commuter EMUs currently operating in Taiwan. The driver cabs at either end of each train are designed with crashworthy structure, while the critical equipment has undergone a series of safety and function verification procedures that ensure the optimal combination of reliability, safety, and operation & maintenance performance.
TUV Rheinland Taiwan holds ISO/IEC 17020 accreditation from the TAF (Taiwan Accreditation Foundation) for third-party verification of rail systems in Taiwan. Localized services can be provided in a timely manner by its highly capable team of local experts that has been involved in the certification of numerous commenced railway projects. In addition to the EMU 900, verification and validation services are also being provided to the TRA for the EMU 3000 (Hitachi) intercity train, the EMU 500 traction module upgrades including the production certificate of power module SIV (Static Inverter) as well as entry door modifications. TUV Rheinland also began supervising the construction of the Taipingshan Forest Railway Bong-Bong Train for the Luodong Forest District Office in 2020. This project is now in the manufacturing phase, and the completed trains passed the factory tests subsequently will be delivered to Taipingshan Forest Railway for main-line trial run by the end of 2021.
Railway equipment certification projects completed by TUV Rheinland in the past have included turnouts, rail, self-steering bogies, and programmable logic controllers (PLC) for the high speed rail signaling system, train control and monitoring systems (TCMS), and onboard communication systems. In response to Taiwan’s R-Team initiative aimed at achieving domestic production of rail products, TUV Rheinland recently partnered with relevant local R&D organizations to provide safety, testing, and certification services. These included development certification services for platform screen door (PSD) systems, door systems, and pantograph systems.