The 14.4 km Orange Line has 14 stations and extends east-west across the city. Covering a total route of 42.7 km, the MRT system in southern Taiwan port city comprises of two lines — the Orange Line and the Red Line, which officially opened Sunday.

Passengers can take free rides on the north-south Red Line until April 6. Those who had already traveled on the MRT were generally satisfied with the comfort and design of the system, and many were impressed by the public art installations at some of the stations.

The works were created by several different artists at the invitation of the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. and include the themes of “Divine Labor Leads Industrialization,” the “Floating Forest, “ the “Emerald Laminata,” the “Dome of Light “ and the “Land of Sugar, Home of Butterflies.”

Tzeng Gui-hai, a doctor and poet who rode the Red Line Sunday, said the Kaohsiung MRT and its public art are “revolutions in space and time” and can convey Kaohsiung City’s aesthetics. He also described the Kaohsiung MRT system as being more beautiful than Tokyo’s subway system. Another rider said the MRT is “definitely” more beautiful than metros he has taken in foreign countries, while another passenger noted that the MRT helps lessen the distance between the city’s urban and rural areas.

Kaohsiung City is Taiwan’s second metropolis to get an MRT after Taipei City. The Kaohsiung MRT was constructed on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract, with total construction expenditure of NT$181.3 billion (US$5.89 billion) . Its construction was approved by the Kaohsiung city council in 1999 and work began in October 2001, involving several scandals and construction accidents.

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung, who also took a free ride Sunday, used the term “no pain, no gain” to describe the efforts made to get the system up and running.

Mayor Chen said the Kaohsiung city government will also promote the construction of a light rail system after the inauguration of the Orange Line, which connects the MRT, railway, and high speed rail systems, and will also work to extend the MRT system to neighboring Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties. She also expressed her gratitude to former Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh,who is now the ruling Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate, for his daring and resolve in bringing the Kaohsiung MRT into realization, and she thanked the teamwork of the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. and the city government’s Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Bureau.

Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp. Chairman Lin Wen-yuan, meanwhile, vowed to keep working on providing a more thorough mass transportation system for Kaohsiung.

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