Vice premier committed to building new HSR stations

Vice Premier Eric Chu said the government's stance is clear and firm, giving all-out support for the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation (THSRC) to construct the new stations in Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin counties as planned.

The transportation ministry will invite the heads of the three counties and the THSRC to meet tomorrow afternoon to discuss the plans for the new stations.

Ou Chin-der, who has just become chairman of the financially troubled THSRC, said Friday that work on the three new stations would be postponed to keep operating costs under control.

But his remarks, apparently addressing the key issue facing his company, backfired, sparking protests and concerns in the three counties about possible delays in the High Speed Rail station projects.

The counties are counting on the infrastructure projects to boost their local economies.

Miaoli County Magistrate Liu Cheng-hung, who had threatened strong protest actions over possible delays, said he telephoned Chu and transport minister Mao Chi-kuo earlier yesterday, and was promised that the projects would go on as planned.

He said Miaoli residents have long awaited such a major development project.

The county government has already acquired land for the project and “there's no turning back now,” he said.

Changhua County Magistrate Cho Po-yuan said he had also called the vice-premier and was assured the plans remained unchanged

THSRC spokesman Ted Chia said the company will still build the new High Speed Rail stations despite its financial difficulties, but it has not yet decided when construction will begin.

The THSRC — a private company with heavy government investments, represented by Ou — is contractually bound to build the stations in the counties of Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin, Chia said.

But the company's financial woes have prevented it from taking control of the land and working out detailed designs, the spokesman said.

But the contract between the THSRC and the government Bureau of High Speed Rail does not have a timetable for the completion of the new stations.

The contract only stipulates that the stations must be completed 66 months after construction begins.

Work has not yet begun on any of the three sites.

The THSRC, which built the 345-kilometer High Speed Railway stretching from Taipei to Kaohsiung under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract with the government, has booked losses of NT$70 billion since operations began in 2007.

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