Skipped MRT stations report denied

Officials from the Bureau of Taiwan High Speed Rail (BTHSR) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said they are still studying proposals to shorten the travel time of the express train linking Taipei and the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

There will be adjustments as to the station stop schedule based on actual passenger numbers, but Wugu and the Chang Gung Hospital stations will not be cancelled, the officials said, adding that the bureau will make a public announcement on its plan in two weeks.

MOTC Vice Minister Yeh Kuang-shih dismissed the report as a “non-issue” as the BTHSR is still investigating proposals designed to speed up the express train in order to reduce travel time.

Yeh said he believed President Ma Ying-jeou “will respect professional evaluation” if the proposal by the BTHSR does not meet the target the president made in June of cutting total travel time to within 25 minutes.

Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang said yesterday the president will respect the BTHSR study if it is technically impossible or too costly to achieve his suggested time reduction.

The airport metro line, which cuts through the Taipei County, has the potential to become a point of contention in the mayoral election at the end of the year as the county is upgraded to Xinbei City. Xinbei mayoral candidates Eric Chu of the ruling Kuomintang, and Tsai Ying-wen of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party, both expressed objections to the reported cancellation of the two stations earlier yesterday.

The BTHSR also dismissed reports that NT$10 billion is going to be spent on changes to shorten travel time by 2 to 3 minutes as “pointless speculation”, as the authorities have not yet begun to review the budget.

Lawmakers across party lines ridiculed the plan as unreasonable.

KMT Legislator Tsai Chin-lung said that if the cost is prohibitively high or it is not possible to reduce the time, Ma should be told.

Another KMT legislator, Lo Shu-lei, said the bureau should first deal with the allegations of bribery surrounding the contracts for the electricity and engineering systems on the Taoyuan Airport MRT line, rather than trying to cut travel time by three minutes at an unreasonably high cost.

Legislators from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party were, more punishing in their criticism of the proposal.

Kuo Jung-tsung, who represents Taoyuan County, said that the high speed rail bureau should not try to cook a plan simply to please the president.

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