Construction of the Neihu Line was approved by the Executive Yuan in 1993 for a medium capacity system.
In 2000, Neihu residents and local city councilors proposed to change the system to high capacity. Ma’s administration insisted on using the medium capacity system to accelerate construction and the pan-blue dominated city council approved the proposal in 2001.
“Ma didn’t want to change the system so that he could hasten the construction and stay within budget, but the construction was delayed for two years because of system integration and the city government ended up wasting more money,” Hsu said.
Construction of the line started in 2002 and was scheduled for completion in 2006. It was not completed until last year following electrical and mechanical problems, driving up the cost from NT$30 billion to NT$63 billion.
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