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Updated Wednesday, February 20, 2008 0:00 am TWN, CNA

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Taiwan to invest NT$15 bil. in eastern rail

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The government has decided to invest NT$15 billion (US$468.8 million) over the next seven years in the first phase of a project to modernize the rail system in the less-developed eastern part of the country.

The overall plan, developed by the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), consists of two major projects to improve the 155-kilometer part of the line connecting Hualien and Taitung — replacing diesel-powered trains with electric powered trains and converting single track sections to double track.

When the project is fully completed, the line’s 2 hour 55 minute travel time will be reduced to under two hours and out of the 30 stations on the line at present, only 11 will remain.

At a briefing on the plan Monday, Sharon Hsieh, one of the council’s planners in the Urban and Housing Development Department, said the first phase of the plan, to begin as early as sometime next year, will focus on the electrification of the line and laying double track in sections with severe bottlenecks. During the second phase, she said, the electrification process and the line’s conversion to a double track railway will be fully completed.

Hsieh said switching to electric-powered locomotives, which are commonly used in most of Taiwan’s railway system, will increase train frequencies and improve safety. Average speeds will be improved to 130km/hr from 110km/hr by using electric power.

The eastern railway network is formed by three main sections — the Yilan Line, the North-link Line and the Hua-Tung Line. While the two northern lines are fully electrified, only diesel powered trains can operate on the Hua-Tung Line.

That means travelers from Taipei to Taitung must either change trains in Hualien or wait there while an electric-powered locomotive is replaced a diesel-powered one. The inconvenience and longer travel time to Taitung is seen as an impediment to tourism in the region.

Hsieh said the first phase of the project will take seven years to complete at a cost of NT$15 billion. The budget will be reviewed annually by the legislature, and the council will review the project’s construction progress carried out by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

The plan is part of a 2005 government campaign aimed at bringing greater economic prosperity to Taiwan’s eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien and Taitung — that includes development plans ranging from rebuilding rural communities to upgrading transportation.

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