President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) recently expressed his dissatisfaction with plans for the Taoyuan International Airport Access MRT System (TIAA). He demanded that the commute between the airport and Taipei Railway Station _be shortened from an estimated 35 minutes to 20 or 25 minutes. The MRT system was announced 20 years ago, but is not expected to be up and running until October 2014 at the earliest.
Mass transit systems can be divided into three categories: intercity high-speed rail systems, local suburban MRT systems and urban MRT systems. The TIAA is an example of an urban MRT system linking major urban centers and their surrounding areas. It was originally planned to link Taipei City, Sanchong, Sinjhuang, Linkou, Taishan, Taoyuan and Chungli. If it had been designed to run straight from Taipei City to the airport, instead of where it is now located in Cingpu (青埔), Taoyuan County, it would be a genuine intercity high-speed rail system.
In other words, the TIAA has been designed to service several suburban areas as well as Taipei, while simultaneously serving the airport and areas along the line after the Airport Zone project is completed.
TIAA planners could learn a lot from the Tokyo Metro. We could have a through train running straight from Taipei Railway Station to the airport and back, an ordinary train that only stops at major stations and a local train that calls at every stop. Through trains could run every 15 minutes, with ordinary and local train services, scheduled to reflect demand, running in the intervals.
The journey between Taipei Railway Station and the airport for through trains could then be reduced to 28 minutes. This falls slightly short of Ma’s demands, but a dependable service and traffic congestions would probably persuade people to use the TIAA. Passengers would take the TIAA provided scheduling was timely, tickets were reasonably priced and various airline companies offered baggage handling and flight check in services at Taipei Railway Station, as is the case with Hong Kong’s Airport Express. This also means we could conserve energy and lower carbon emissions.
The TIAA must cater to future transportation needs that will come after the Airport Zone project is completed. It should also service the surrounding areas, linking them with Taipei City, Sanchong, Sinjhuang, Linkou, Taishan and Chongli. How about reasonably priced user-friendly shuttle bus services from each station along the line, with discounts for tourists and frequent users who live along the lines and use electronic payment technology.
The delays in construction and constant changing of contractors have been bad for the reputation of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects in Taiwan. Lessons have to be learned from these mistakes, and the government needs to plan things more carefully. The first step toward this goal must involve clearly defining the goals of BOT projects and undertaking comprehensive planning before contracts are signed.
To suddenly demand that the TIAA pass through the airport while also providing mass transit services to the surrounding areas is simply asking too much. In another example of poor planning, the contractors changed their minds halfway through the project and demanded suppliers provide the On-Board Units used for Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) free of charge.
The government should clearly define the goals of major transportation projects to make them user-friendly, green and well-designed transportation systems. Otherwise these transportation systems will fall short of their potential.
Lee Ke-tsung is an associate professor of traffic and transportation at engineerng and management at Feng Chia University.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
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