The Executive Yuan and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday reaffirmed the government’s rail projects in response to former premier Mao Chi-kuo’s (毛治國) criticism of the nationwide construction of railway lines.
The Executive Yuan has planned an eight-year special budget of NT$424.13 billion (US$14.01 billion) to construct and renovate rail systems nationwide, including mass rapid transit systems in Kaohsiung, Tainan, Taichung and Taoyuan, as well as light rail systems in Hsinchu and Keelung.
Elevated or underground rail systems are also to replace surface rail lines in urban areas of Taoyuan, Taichung, Chiayi and Tainan.
The rail projects are the main part of the Cabinet’s eight-year NT$880 billion Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, which has been criticized as a hasty decision for election purposes.
In a column published by the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday, Mao urged the government to commit itself to constructing underground or elevated urban rail systems to improve traffic flow and reduce the number of traffic accidents.
A mass construction of light rail systems is not immediately necessary because the planned lines, which are surface transport systems, would disrupt traffic and overlap with existing lines operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration, wrote Mao, who served as minister of transportation and communications between 2008 and 2013.
In rural areas, buses are more helpful than rail systems in reducing traffic accidents involving senior drivers and scooter users, which are common types of accidents there, he wrote.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) reaffirmed the government’s rail projects and said that Mao was contradicting himself.
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