Flights cancelled, all train services suspended as Typhoon Gaemi approaches

Taipei, July 24 (CNA) Typhoon Gaemi forced the cancellation of 462 flights Wednesday morning, while the Taiwan Railway Administration announced the suspension of all train services from noon.

According to the Civil Aeronautics Administration, as of Wednesday morning, 201 international and cross-strait flights and 261 domestic flights had been canceled and 14 flights were delayed.

China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Airways (EVA Air), Taiwan’s two largest international airlines, have cancelled over 70 flights, including some flights to and from Incheon and Gimpo in South Korea, Fukuoka in Japan, Jakarta in Indonesia, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau in China, and Palau.

Other airlines that have announced flight cancellations include Tigerair Taiwan, Cathay Pacific Airways, China Southern Airlines, Thai Vietjet Air and UNI Airways.

Meanwhile, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) announced on Wednesday that all train services in Taiwan would be suspended from Wednesday noon to Thursday noon.

Taiwan High Speed ​​​​Rail (THSR) Corp. also announced that it would suspend all its original train services starting at noon, but would operate three northbound trains and three southbound trains every hour, stopping at all stations.

At 11 a.m., the eye of the typhoon was located about 160 kilometers southeast of Yilan in the east and was moving in a west-northwest direction at a speed of 18 to 13 kilometers per hour, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA).

Maximum sustained wind speeds of up to 184 km/h with gusts of up to 227 km/h prevailed.

Typhoon Gaemi, which is expected to make landfall in the eastern counties of Yilan and Hualien at midnight on Wednesday, is expected to bring strong winds and heavy rains across Taiwan, the CWA said.