Since opening last July 4 under the name of Neihu-Muzha Line, it fell victim to several major stoppages and a wealth of minor technical problems.

The city later changed the name of the line in an effort to repair its battered image.

The city singled out the difficult harmonization of the new Neihu segment built by Canada's Bombardier Inc. with the more than ten-year-old Muzha Line, designed by France's Matra.

Just ahead of September's Deaflympics, the whole line spent two weekends idle during repairs.

However, the city is also facing compensation claims from Bombardier over the suspension of a renewal plan for train cars.

The city's compensation request from subcontractor Kunghsin Construction would include NT$14.24 million for the weekend repairs and NT$81.17 million to cover all extra technical and personnel-related expenses, said Richard Chen, the commissioner of the city government's Department of Rapid Transit Systems at a Taipei City Council budget discussion yesterday.

The second part included NT$43.15 million in extra staff expenses, NT$21.09 million in ticket fares not received because of the breakdowns, NT$9 million in compensation payments to travelers and NT$7.69 million for extra bus services, Chen said.

The official rejected arguments from Bombardier it could claim compensation from the city for its delays in ordering the renewal of cars.

The postponement was caused by the general problems with the system, so the company had no cause to demand compensation, Chen said.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party has blamed the problems of the Wenhu MRT Line on the previous city administration of President Ma Ying-jeou.

The repeated breakdowns and other technical problems with the line have damaged public confidence in the MRT system.

The city is nevertheless still planning to go ahead with the opening of new lines at the pace of one every year until 2014.