Most transportation services back to normal as Bavi leaves Taiwan

Taipei, July 12 (CNA) Rail and air services around Taiwan and most ground transportation services to Taoyuan International Airport had largely returned to normal by Sunday afternoon as Typhoon Bavi moved away from Taiwan, but ferry services to outlying islands remained disrupted.

Taiwan Railway Corp., which runs Taiwan's standard train network, said services on the western and eastern trunk lines, as well as the South Link Line, had returned to normal.

Taiwan Railway also completed its cleanup of the Neiwan Branch Line in Hsinchu ahead of schedule, enabling service on the line to resume with Train No. 1824 that departs from Zhuzhong Station at 2:52 p.m.

Shuttle bus service that had been provided to move passengers between Zhuzhong and Neiwan was discontinued.

As for Taiwan's north-south high-speed train line, the line returned to its normal schedule on Sunday, as announced Saturday night by Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC), after services were limited on Saturday as a precaution.

Flights in and out of Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei Songshan Airport were returning to normal Sunday afternoon.

The Taoyuan International Airport Corp. (TIAC) said 672 passenger flights carrying an estimated 155,000 passengers and 84 cargo flights were set to land at and take off from the airport Sunday.

A total of 123 flights were canceled, the TIAC said, many of them flights scheduled to return from abroad that were unable to depart Saturday or early Sunday morning.

The TIAC said Sunday morning that most ground transportation options serving the airport, including the Taoyuan Airport MRT, taxi services and most bus routes, had returned to normal.

The exceptions were the 1623 bus route between the airport and Taichung, which was scheduled to resume service at 2:35 p.m. Sunday, and the 1819B route between the airport and Taipei Main Station and the 1842 route between the airport and Taipei Songshan Airport, which remained suspended.

Shuttle buses between Terminals 1 and 2 were operating normally.

The airport also reopened its north and south observation decks after they had been closed since 6 p.m. Friday.

Most international and domestic flights scheduled to depart from or arrive at Taipei Songshan Airport on Sunday morning before 10:30 a.m. were canceled, but the schedule was returning to normal in the afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Danjiang Bridge in New Taipei, which had been closed since Friday night, reopened at 10 a.m. Sunday following safety inspections and a cleanup of the road's surface, according to the Highway Bureau.

Ferry services, however, remained heavily affected. The Maritime and Port Bureau said 14 ferry routes, comprising 101 sailings, remained suspended.

According to the Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC), Typhoon Bavi had injured 134 people across Taiwan as of Sunday morning, including six foreign nationals.

The storm also disrupted water and power supplies. A total of 4,278 households lost water service, with service expected to be restored to all households by 6 p.m. Sunday, according to a CEOC report.

Meanwhile, 247,558 households experienced power outages, with electricity already restored to all but 3,273 households.

Of those still without power, 2,144 households in Hsinchu County's Jianshi and Wufeng townships and 55 households in Taoyuan's Fuxing District were expected to have electricity restored by 11 p.m. Sunday.

Work was affected in those areas by road closures or blocked access.

Separately, the barrier lake on Hualien County's Wanli River had reached 82.31 percent of its capacity, holding about 4.2 million metric tons of water, as of 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Authorities estimated the lake could overflow as early as Wednesday, though additional rainfall could accelerate the timeline, and officials continued to warn people in the area to stay out of the riverbed until further notice.