The Taipei City government is considering seeking NT$954.1 million in compensation from the Wenhu Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line's contractor Kung Shin Engineering Corp. (KSECO) , for the line's frequent malfunctions since it was inaugurated in July. Richard Chen, commissioner of the city's Department of Rapid Transit Systems, and Taipei Rapid Transit Corp. President Tsai Huei-sheng gave briefings on final accounts of the Wenhu line budget and the amount of monetary compensation they seek. Chen said that the city is entitled to compensate for expenses arising from system abnormalities on the line in two parts. The first part includes a total of NT$811.77 million in expenses. These costs include: extra personnel expenditure of NT$431. 58 million as of Nov. 4, a loss of NT$210.99 million in ticket revenues due to system stoppages, NT$9 million used in compensation and subsidies for affected passengers, NT$7.69 million in launching a shuttle bus service to evacuate passengers and other losses suffered during the shutdowns on the line and additional costs of equipment repairs and maintenance. The other part of the compensation the city may seek includes NT$142.41 million incurred when the system was suspended for checks and repairs during holidays, which is broken down into NT$139.18 million used for providing free shuttle buses for passengers and NT$142.41 for renting buses for disabled people, according to Chen. Regarding the timing for asking for compensation, Chen said that as the construction project of the CB370 electromechanical system has not been completed yet, it will be better to deduct the amount from construction payment to the company when the system is checked and found to be acceptable. The Taipei City government informed the KSECO contractor, Canada-based Bombardier Inc., to suspend the update of monitoring and communication system for 51 train pairs on the Mucha line. It directed a resumption of the line's operation Sept. 11 after the company promised to propose a long term network optimization plan, in which another network system will be used to replace the existing one. The replacement network system will begin operation as early as January 2010. The trains were produced by French Matra. Bombardier won a contract in 2003 to update the original train control system and the fleet of 51 trains, as well as supply 101 new cars for the Wenhu line. The city government has also formed a task force to handle an overall review of daily operation defects and has requested that Bombardier Inc. speed up improvements of all the related system malfunctions. Accordingly, the task force will conduct regular follow-up and inspections until system functions have achieved the necessary level of stability, Chen said. On the other hand, the KSECO said it is mulling whether to ask for compensation for its losses on work stoppage for about 41 days due to a delay in the update of the control system, but did not provide the amount of compensation it would seek. 