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Community Compass:PROFILE:Director of BTCO is hooked on Taiwan’s rail system

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Michael Reilly is known in Taiwan’s diplomatic circle as the director of the British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO), but few probably know that he is also a railway fan.

“I would call myself an ‘average’ railway fan,” Reilly said in an interview with the Taipei Times. “I like traveling by trains, but I’ve never done that to the exclusion of something else.”

“I don’t think my wife will consider herself a train widow,” he joked.

During his second visit to Taiwan in 1974, Reilly checked out the Alishan Railway as he had heard it was still using the Shay locomotive, a US-made steam engine specifically designed for logging railways.

And when he returned two years ago to assume the post as the BTCO director, he soon joined the Railway Culture Society, Taiwan (鐵道文化協會), becoming one of its few foreign members.

Reilly has toured Taiwan on both Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) trains.

He named the TRA’s Pingshi Line (平溪線) and the South Link (南迴線) as two of his favorite railway lines in Taiwan.

The Pingshi Line runs from Houtong (侯硐) to Jintong (菁桐) in Taipei County.

Reilly says the rural line has “all the charm of a brunch line,” particularly the scenery in Shifen (十分).

The South Link — connecting Kaohsiung and Taitung — is a slightly busier but nonetheless scenic route.

“You go through the tunnels and spectacular waterfalls and come across the scenery of the East Coast. That, to me, rivals any of the alpine lines,” he said.

Reilly said that the construction of the high-speed rail system was impressive and has made a difference in the way people travel in Taiwan.

“There are very few countries in the world that have got dedicated high speed lines,” he said. “Building a line like [the high speed rail], where you have very high population density, challenges of earthquakes and all the rest of it, is a big feat.”

Coming from a small town in the northwest of England, Reilly became interested in railways when he was about nine years old. To pass the time, he and other boys would watch the trains go by at the railway station, which was a short walk from his house.

Reilly was impressed by the friendliness of railway people in general.

“In those days, crews on the engine would chat to small boys on the platform. This makes you feel that you are part of the bigger adult world,” he said.

Reilly’s fascination with the variety of steam locomotives — as well as daydreams of taking a train to somewhere exotic — also explain why he became a railway enthusiast.

Having a doctorate in urban transport, Reilly was once offered a job at the London Transport. Though tempted to take the position, he eventually chose to work for the foreign service instead.

Nowadays, he sometimes drives steam engines on private railway lines in the UK for fun. Reilly said that he did not know the historical connection between the UK and Taiwan in the railway sector before he came. He was surprised to learn that one of the two locomotives displayed in front of the National Taiwan Museum was built by the British company Avonside in 1871. The electrification of the TRA main line was done by a British firm as well, he said.

The nation’s high speed rail system also adopted the Independent Verification and Validation System, a certification mechanism for safety imported from the UK.

Reilly is aware that people in Taiwan complain a great deal about the two railway services, particularly about the lateness of the trains. He has found, however, that both TRA and THSRC trains were by and large punctual. Some of the complaints were unjustified, he said, given the density of the network and overall frequency and reliability of the systems.

Reilly was also amazed at the rich railway heritage that Taiwan possesses. Aside from the Alishan Railway, he said the fan-shaped railway depot in Changhwa County, built in 1922, was a well-preserved historical treasure.

Currently, the depot also keeps two functional locomotives.

Reilly encouraged the nation to advertise its railway culture more in the international community.

He mentioned that some British parliament members of a railway lobby group came last fall and traveled by railway. They went on a TRA cruise train called Formosa Star (寶島之星) and were surprised that nobody had told them about it before, Reilly said.

“Taiwan has got the image problem; it doesn’t do enough to promote its attractions and its charms,” he said. “Things always have to come through word of mouth.”

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