Taiwan MRT Far Eastern Hospital Empty Train Finder

Identifies trains that originate at 亞東醫院 station (空車) vs those arriving from 海山 station. Empty trains are less crowded because no passengers have boarded yet.

Background

The Bannan line (板南線) terminates at 頂埔 on the west end. Trains departing from 亞東醫院 are "empty trains" (空車) — they originate here with no passengers. Trains coming from 海山 (3 minutes west) already have riders.

Travel time: 海山 → 亞東醫院 ≈ 3 minutes

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When to Use

Trigger when user asks about:

• 亞東醫院 空車 / empty trains at Far Eastern Hospital station
• 捷運空車 / which trains are less crowded
• 幾點有空車 / when are the empty trains
• 下一班空車 / next empty train

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Workflow

Step 1: Determine Day Type

Always determine the correct day type BEFORE running the script.

Use the taiwan-calendar skill to check if the query date is a holiday or working day. Run taiwan_calendar.py check <YYYY-MM-DD> from within the taiwan-calendar skill directory.

Map the result to a --day-type value:

taiwan-calendar output	Weekday	--day-type
非工作日 (國定假日 or Sunday)	any	sunday_holiday
非工作日 (Saturday, not 補班)	Sat	saturday
工作日 (including 補班 on Saturday)	Mon–Thu	mon_thu
工作日	Friday	friday

If taiwan-calendar skill is unavailable: Omit --day-type entirely. The script falls back to weekday-based detection (no holiday awareness).

Step 2: Run the Script

From this skill's directory (skills/taiwan-mrt-fareastern-empty-train/):

# Show next N empty trains (空車 only)
uv run --managed-python scripts/mrt_empty_train.py query \
  --day-type <type> \
  --time HH:MM \
  --count 5

# Show all trains with 空車/海山發 labels
uv run --managed-python scripts/mrt_empty_train.py all \
  --day-type <type> \
  --time HH:MM \
  --count 10

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Commands

query — Next Empty Trains

Shows the next N trains that originate at 亞東醫院 (空車 only).

uv run --managed-python scripts/mrt_empty_train.py query \
  --day-type mon_thu \
  --time 08:30 \
  --count 5

Output:

亞東醫院 空車班次 (平常日(週一至週四))，08:30 之後：
  08:30 空車
  08:34 空車
  08:37 空車
  08:44 空車
  08:50 空車

all — All Trains with Labels

Shows all trains after the query time, labelled 空車 or 海山發.

uv run --managed-python scripts/mrt_empty_train.py all \
  --day-type mon_thu \
  --time 06:00 \
  --count 7

Output:

亞東醫院 班次列表 (平常日(週一至週四))，06:00 之後：
  06:00 空車
  06:05 空車
  06:10 海山發
  06:17 海山發
  06:21 空車
  06:25 海山發
  06:30 海山發

refresh — Force Re-download

Downloads latest PDFs from TRTC and regenerates cache.

uv run --managed-python scripts/mrt_empty_train.py refresh

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Parameters

Parameter	Description
--time HH:MM	Query time (default: current time)
--date YYYY-MM-DD	Query date for fallback weekday detection (default: today)
--day-type TYPE	Day type: mon_thu, friday, saturday, sunday_holiday
--holiday	Force Sunday/Holiday timetable
--count N	Max results to show
--travel-time MIN	海山→亞東醫院 travel time in minutes (default: 3)

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Cache

• Location: ~/.cache/taiwan-mrt/
• Valid for: 7 days (auto-refreshes when stale)
• Force refresh: refresh command

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Full Example

User: 現在幾點有空車？

Step 1 — Get day type via taiwan-calendar:
  uv run --managed-python scripts/taiwan_calendar.py check 2026-02-25
  → "2026-02-25 (週三) 是工作日。"
  → day type = mon_thu

Step 2 — Query empty trains:
  uv run --managed-python scripts/mrt_empty_train.py query --day-type mon_thu

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Troubleshooting

PDF download fails

• Check network connectivity
• TRTC may have updated PDF URLs; check https://web.metro.taipei
• URLs in script: https://web.metro.taipei/img/ALL/timetables/080a.PDF

Empty output

• Try refresh to re-download the latest timetable
• Verify --day-type matches the actual date

Unexpected results

• Run refresh to re-parse the latest PDFs
• Column x-coordinates may need adjustment if TRTC updated PDF layout (see COLUMN_DEFS constant in scripts/mrt_empty_train.py)