The launch of the high speed rail comes with a sense of relief as much as pride. As with the completion of any major construction project in this country, political headkicking and professional skepticism have been prominent, with a number of ministerial figures having their careers badly hurt in the process.
For most of the public, however, the political fallout is of no interest whatsoever. What they are interested in is affordability, reliability and -- most of all -- safety.
The safety of the system has come under increasing scrutiny from pan-blue-camp legislators and consumer advocates. To be sure, testing of the system has not been as smooth as it could have been. Then again, system testing is supposed to point out such pitfalls; what really matters is that the high speed rail's minor deficiencies have been dealt with comprehensively.
For the average person, the safety of the system has come under a cloud because of the sheer amount of speculative attention paid to it: not the attention of accredited specialists but of politicians, talkshow hosts and the rest of the professional rumor mill.
Even so, the Bureau of High Speed Rail and the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) have at times hurt themselves by silly bickering and dealing with issues of expertise as if they were juggling jacks.
The pricing system, as with everything else, will eventually succumb to market forces. Taiwan is blessed to have numerous and inexpensive travel options on the west coast, and anyone who balks at the price of this expensive piece of new infrastructure can always avail themselves of domestic planes, ordinary trains and freeway automobiles if the system's time-cost ratio offends.
As for reliability, the new rail system can be expected to offer punctual service, except in the event of severe weather or earthquakes. Of more concern is what passengers will find at the stations where they disembark. The THSRC Web site, to its credit, provides helpful transport connection information, local maps and suggested routes for private vehicles, but the English and Japanese-language versions are considerably less detailed.
The high speed rail system has also opened a corridor for a number of ground-level highways (the "provincial" highway 30s series) which will aid traffic flow in the vicinity of the stations, which is a welcome addition to the network of -- sometimes inadequate -- roads that must cope with the new volume.
As with the Taipei MRT, it is most likely that testing mishaps and initial skepticism toward the high speed rail will be succeeded by professional service and a highly satisfied public. As to the matter of safety, responsibility is ongoing: If the THSRC and its government minders do their jobs properly, then threats to the safety of passengers and crew should be telegraphed sufficiently far in advance to allow changes to be made.
For the sake of a public subjected to rumor and opportunism, however, the bureau and the corporation would do well to ensure that safety procedures and inspections are rigorous and frequent and publicly so.
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