THSR Signaling Fault Causes Delays; Ministry of Transportation Establishes Response Center

Central News Agency, Taipei, May 25. Due to a signaling fault, the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) announced that starting at 8:00 AM, all scheduled trains were canceled, replaced by a limited service of three non-reserved trains per hour in each direction. Deputy Minister of Transportation Lin Kuo-hsien stated that a response center has been established, and the THSR has entered a 'degraded operation mode,' with inspections scheduled for the evening. THSR announced that trains will depart from Nangang (southbound) and Zuoying (northbound) at the top of the hour, 20 minutes past, and 40 minutes past, stopping at all stations. The Legislative Yuan's Transportation Committee was reviewing budgets today, but due to the delays, Minister of Transportation Chen Shih-kai and several lawmakers were unable to arrive on time, forcing a temporary suspension of the meeting. Lawmaker Lee Kun-tse noted that THSR serves up to 300,000 passengers on holidays and highlighted that there have been 43 operational anomalies in 2025 alone, calling for urgent improvements. Deputy Minister Lin confirmed that the cause is still under investigation and that passengers can request refunds within one year. This incident is the most severe since 2013, when a signaling failure halted operations for three hours, affecting 35,000 passengers.