In 1996, the first stage of a plan to improve Seattle’s public transport system was approved by a referendum. The initiative, known as Sound Move, featured varied modes of transportation, including light rail, commuter trains and rapid bus transit for approximately 200,000 passengers each day.
More than a decade later, on Nov. 4, 2008, a debt plan, Sound Transit, was passed in another referendum on improving public transport. The program sought to improve the service, scope and functions of public transport over a period of 15 years. More than NT$560 billion (US$17.5 billion) was invested and it was estimated that 358,000 passengers would be using the system daily by 2030.
This is the city Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) wanted to emulate when he took office and the reason he wanted an MRT system. But does this comparison make sense?
Seattle City has a population of 600,000, compared with Taichung’s 1 million, and a land area 2.2 times larger than Taichung. The Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle has a population of 2.7 million and a land area almost 2.2 times the size of Taichung City and County combined.
A well-planned mass transport system is a long-term project — and an important investment in enhancing city life. Building and improving mass transport systems are no small matter for any city, and residents should have adequate opportunities to participate in the decision-making process.
In Taichung, however, residents and even city councilors have been left out of the planning, design and construction of Taichung’s Green Line, which some people jokingly refer to as the Taipei MRT’s “Taichung spur line” because the central government, the Taipei City Government and the Taichung City Government settled the details among themselves more than a year ago.
It is very hard to praise the Taichung City Government’s approach when we compare how Hu angrily told Taichung residents that the central government had given him only two choices — an elevated MRT or no MRT at all — with the way Seattle’s public transport has developed in stages spread out over years with large amounts of investment.
The approach of the Taichung City Government is even more disappointing when one considers that Taichung City and County are about to merge.
Seattle residents participated in decisions through a series of public policy debates, forums and referendums.
Taichung should avoid rushing into an investment of more than NT$50 billion to build an elevated MRT system that will only dart above Wensin Road, especially as it is about to merge with Taichung County and as the system could lose several hundred million NT dollars every year. Taichung would do better to spend that money on other things.
Lin Chia-lung is secretary-general of the Association for the Promotion of Greater Taichung.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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