The section of the Airport Rail connecting the Taoyuan high-speed rail station and the terminals at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport may start operations by the end of 2012, the Bureau of High Speed Rail said yesterday.
The section, once completed, will shorten the travel time from 20 minutes to about 10 minutes.
Once finished, the entire rail line will connect Taoyuan County, Taipei County and Taipei City and will include seven underground stations and 15 elevated stations.
The bureau had planned to start operations of the section from Sanchong (三重) in Taipei County to Jhongli (中壢) in Taoyuan County by June 2013. However, it now hopes that the section between the high-speed rail station in Taoyuan and the airport could begin operations at least six months earlier than scheduled.
“This is in line with public expectations,” bureau deputy director general Chen Cheng-kai (陳正楷) said, adding that it was a challenging task.
The entire 51.3km route of the Airport Rail — from the Taipei Railway Station to Jhongli — is scheduled for completion in October 2014.
Meanwhile, Chen confirmed that the Taoyuan County Government will be in charge of the Airport Rail system, adding that the bureau and the county government were conducting negotiations and planned to sign a contract by the end of the year, he said.
Earlier this year, bureau director-general Chu Shu (朱旭) said the bureau was still deciding between the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) and the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC, 台北捷運公司) as the potential operator of the Airport Rail.
“The Mass Rapid Transit Act (大眾捷運法) state that local governments could be operators of mass rapid transit systems,” Chen said.
“We had asked the Taipei City Government, Taipei County Government and Taoyuan County Government about their interest in operating the Airport Rail. Only Taoyuan County demonstrated a strong interest,” Chen said.
Chen said the Taipei City Government was the only one among the three that has experience operating a mass transit system.
The TRTC, meanwhile, has listed several criteria that must be met before it would agree to take over the system, including the government’s guarantee to compensate the company for possible operational losses.
Taipei County declined to make an offer.
Chen said the Taoyuan County Government planned to construct its own mass transit system and incorporate the Airport Rail into that network.
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