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Updated Sunday, February 19, 2012 0:02 am TWN, The China Post news staff

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Taiwan should build train museum: expert

President Ma Ying-jeou said Taiwan's railroad networks could help promote the country's international relations, while a local railway transport expert said the island badly needs a train museum.

Ma made the remarks during a chat with train expert Su Chao-yu. Their conversation was streamed on the Office of President's website to mark the last chapter of Ma's weekly online journal.

Su said Taiwan has a rich railway culture to which many foreign train lovers are attracted. The expert said Taiwan should step up promoting its train culture internationally.

Su, who has written 30 railway-related books, said Taiwan needs a national train museum to preserve the culture and memories related to the local railway.

He said many countries have national train museums. In Taiwan the five major railway networks, including the high-speed train system, have their own museums, but a new body must be set up to coordinate these resources, he said.

Su, an assistant professor of transportation from a southern university, noted that the Alishan train running on the 2,451-meter high mountain is a unique heritage of Taiwan's railway culture.

The Alishan train has great potential to “shine” internationally, he said.

He also noted that many Japanese visitors love traveling around Taiwan by train. Some of their favorites are old trains in the mountains.

A sister tie has already been established between Taiwan's CK124 steam locomotives and Japan's C11171 in Hokkaido, Su said.

He added that Taiwan can invite more Japanese visitors to come travel around the island by train, which he described as a form of railway diplomacy.

The president agreed that the railway culture could help Taiwan find an “outlet” in terms of international relations.

Ma noted that there have been many studies on Taiwan's railway history, and some previously suspended railway lines with old locomotives have resumed services.

He did not commit to having his administration build a train museum, but said collaboration between the government and private sectors can help preserve Taiwan's railway culture in the future.

Taiwan built its first railway in 1887 when Liu Ming-chuan was governor of the island, which was then still under the rule of the imperial Ching Dynasty.

Ma noted the first railway was constructed with private funding from British and German businessmen.

He said it was the prototype of Taiwan's BOT (build-operate-transfer) practice where private businesses are put in charge of constructing and operating a nation's infrastructures for a certain period before handing them back to the state.

The president described himself as a “fan” of Liu's, and expressed a strong interest in creating a cultural business out of the railway.

He said train tickets for trips between two townships, Yungbao and Ankeng, for example, have already become much sought after souvenirs.

The combination of the four Chinese characters of the two townships' names on the ticket means “forever safe and healthy.”

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Comments

February 19, 2012 james@

I've visited the train museum near Tokyo. The Japan Railway Museum I think is the name. It is incredible. It had to tens of millions of US dollars to build. Very impressive place but it was kind of creepy as I was nearly the only one there in this vast exhibit. Perhaps a better way of going about this is to have various installations at existing stations so that it would encourage visitors to go to the next stop or the next town or across the country to see the next exhibit. Much of the infrastructure is already in place with existing facilities and land so this might be a way of encouraging folks to travel and see more of the country and at the same time allow locals all over the country to enjoy the history of the trains through the installations that are near to them. Just thinking out lout and letting you know my experience. Train lover from the US.

February 21, 2012 curtisakbar@

Instead of building a museum, try improving the very slow trains. OK, you have the HSR but that's only good for going between Kaohsiung and Taipei. The east of Taiwan has the snail train that is always packed and super slow. From Taipei to Fulong takes less than an hour by car but almost 2hours on the snail train.