The earth is sinking under the nation’s high-speed rail line, New Public Construction Commission (PCC) Minister Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said yesterday, warning that it could become inoperable in 10 years if nothing is done.
The soil has subsided because of excessive draining of ground water on a stretch of the line in Yunlin County and the limit of what is considered safe is fast approaching, Lee said.
“The high-speed rail can safely operate for a maximum of 10 years if the problem is kept under control,” Lee said.
“However, the area affected has expanded this year because of the water shortage problem. With more ground water being lost, 10 years has become a conservative estimate,” added Lee, who on Monday traveled to Yunlin with other government officials to inspect the high-speed rail line.
The Executive Yuan has scheduled a cross-departmental meeting on Friday to discuss the subsidence problem in Yunlin County.
Lee told a press conference yesterday that areas along the high-speed rail line have suffered the worst of the subsidence problem and while the Bureau of High Speed Rail — the agency oversees the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp's operator of the 345km line that runs the length of the nation’s western corridor — has managed to keep the difference in the angle of the line’s piers under the safety limit, the problem must be solved within 10 years or the rail system will be facing a major crisis.
Approximately 1,400km2 in Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi counties also have the same problems, about a 10th of the plains area on the west coast, he added.
Not only will the subsidence create safety issues on the high-speed rail line, but it will also impact on food supply and drainage if the problem is not addressed immediately, Lee said.
Lee said the government is considering imposing weight controls on about 3km of the high-speed rail line in Yunlin County as excessive weight could cause the land to subside further. The zones near the entrance to the Central Science Park also reportedly have problems with subsidence, he said.
The Central Science Park Administration said that it does not draw on ground water and the government needs to find out what is causing the land in these areas to subside, he said.
When asked if the problem meant the government would not build a high-speed rail station in Yunlin, Lee said that was a separate matter.
“The station would be useless if the high-speed rail line is unsafe,” Lee said. “If the station is to be built, we have to take into consideration the materials used for its construction and the weight of the buildings.”
At a separate setting yesterday, Chang Kuang-chih (張廣智), director of the Water Resources Agency’s hydrology division, said Changhua County’s Dacheng Township (大城) suffered the worst subsidence in 2001, with the average subsidence standing at 17.6cm, while last year the worst effects were felt in Chang-hua County’s Sijhou Township (溪州) and Yunlin County’s Tuku Township (土庫), where the average was 6.4cm.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia and AFP

PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi yesterday lavished US President Donald Trump with praise and vows of a “golden age” of ties on his visit to Tokyo, before inking a deal with Washington aimed at securing critical minerals. Takaichi — Japan’s first female prime minister — pulled out all the stops for Trump in her opening test on the international stage and even announced that she would nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said. Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world,

REASSURANCE: The US said Taiwan’s interests would not be harmed during the talk and that it remains steadfast in its support for the nation, the foreign minister said US President Donald Trump on Friday said he would bring up Taiwan with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in South Korea this week. “I will be talking about Taiwan [with Xi],” Trump told reporters before he departed for his trip to Asia, adding that he had “a lot of respect for Taiwan.” “We have a lot to talk about with President Xi, and he has a lot to talk about with us. I think we’ll have a good meeting,” Trump said. Taiwan has long been a contentious issue between the US and China.

GLOBAL PROJECT: Underseas cables ‘are the nervous system of democratic connectivity,’ which is under stress, Member of the European Parliament Rihards Kols said The government yesterday launched an initiative to promote global cooperation on improved security of undersea cables, following reported disruptions of such cables near Taiwan and around the world. The Management Initiative on International Undersea Cables aims to “bring together stakeholders, align standards, promote best practices and turn shared concerns into beneficial cooperation,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said at a seminar in Taipei. The project would be known as “RISK,” an acronym for risk mitigation, information sharing, systemic reform and knowledge building, he said at the seminar, titled “Taiwan-Europe Subsea Cable Security Cooperation Forum.” Taiwan sits at a vital junction on