At the end of July, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (台北捷運公司; TRTC) changed the names of four stations on the Songshan and Xinyi lines, the Liberty Times reported in August (full Chinese-language article here). These included two stations not yet in operation, Taipei 101 (臺北一0一) and Taipei Arena (臺北小巨蛋). By using 臺, they differ from those stations already in operation, which use the simpler version of the character, 台, in names such as Taipei Main Station (台北車站), NTU Hospital (台大醫院) and Taipower Building (台電大樓).
Furthermore, the paper argued, the [former “world tallest”] Taipei 101 building uses the simpler version in its official name, 台北一0一. So the Taipei City Government’s Department of Rapid Transport Systems (捷運局; DORTS), which is responsible for setting names, is neither following precedent nor respecting names already in use.
A spokesperson for Taipei 101 said the company is officially registered as 台北一0一, and uses 台 not 臺 on its signs and publications, so naturally it hopes the naming of the MRT station will accord with the formal name. But if the DORTS insists on using 臺, the company said it would have to respect that.
DORTS said it was taking in to consideration recent government promotion of the use of traditional characters, and so station names would thus use 臺. However, changing the simple character to traditional version in the existing names (Taipei Main Station &c.) would lead to confusion as they had been in use for many years, and the expense would be enormous, so they will not be changed.
Translation copyright Jiyue Publications
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