A plan proposed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to speed up the Taoyuan Airport MRT line by canceling express stops at two stations has drawn opposition from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), legislators and an election candidate from his own party.
Construction of the half-built express line from Taipei to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport was thrown into jeopardy after Ma spoke publicly about wanting to see the 38-minute ride shortened to about 25 minutes — despite remarks from industry professionals that it could compromise passenger safety.
The 51km line is about 60 percent completed and any change would likely include a substantial reworking of electrical engineering systems or carriage design, inviting cost overruns and contract violations, Central News Agency said.
It is now uncertain whether the entire line, running from Taipei Main Station to Taipei County and then Taoyuan, will be completed by October 2014 as scheduled.
The Bureau of Taiwan High Speed Rail (BTHSR), which is responsible for building the project, yesterday estimated that it could cost up to NT$10 billion (US$311.7 million) to make the changes to bring travel time to 25 minutes. The plan includes increasing the speed of the trains by 10 percent and canceling two planned stops in Taipei County.
Total cost for the line is already pegged at NT$113.85 billion.
In a surprising statement on Saturday night, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Sinbei City mayoral candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) said he was “resolutely opposed” to scrapping the two stops, saying they were an important part of Sinbei City’s future transit infrastructure.
Despite saying that he “understood Ma’s dedication to shorten travel time,” he said the proposal would greatly decrease the effectiveness of future MRT lines and went against popular opinion.
His competitor, DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), also blasted the revisions, saying it would undermine regional development and did not hold up to professional analysis.
“It’s a crude policy measure,” she said. “It neglects the needs of [Taipei County] residents.”
The two candidates were not the only ones to speak out against the plan, as legislators from both the pan-blue and pan-green camps ridiculed it in the legislature yesterday, saying it was unnecessary and potentially dangerous.
KMT Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) said Ma should not have made policy decisions without consulting professionals about the proposed numbers, adding that the revisions would be nearly impossible to implement.
DPP legislators said the president “should not treat public safety as a joke.”
“President Ma is not an expert, and yet the expert in this case — the BTHSR — is not willing to tell the truth,” DPP Legislator Kuo Jung-tsung (郭榮宗) said.
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