Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) will still build three planned high-speed railway stations despite its financial difficulties, but it has not yet decided when construction will begin, THSRC spokesman Ted Chia (賈先德) said yesterday.
Chia was trying to allay public concerns over the possible cancellation of the construction projects after THSRC chairman Ou Chin-der (歐晉德) said a day earlier that work on the three new stations would be postponed to keep operating costs under control.
THSRC is contractually bound to build the stations in the counties of Miaoli, Changhua and Yunlin, Chia said, but its financial problems have prevented it from taking control of the land and preparing detailed designs.
Differing urban development plans have also delayed THSRC plans, Chia said.
Though the company is contractually obligated to build the stations, the contract between THSRC and the Bureau of High Speed Rail under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications does not set a timetable for the completion of the new stations. It specifies only that they must be completed 66 months after construction begins.
Work has not yet begun on any of the three sites. Meanwhile, Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shi (葉匡時) said that now that the government has taken a guiding role in running the high-speed railway system, it will make an effort to restart the station projects.
Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-Yuan (卓伯源) said yesterday that in addition to Yeh, Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) and Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) both said that plans to build the stations had not changed.
Cho said Chu told him in a phonecall earlier in the day that the government would keep its promise to the three local governments and build the stations.
THSRC, a private company that built the 345km high-speed railway and operated the line under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) contract with the government, has been running in the red, weighted down by high-interest expenses and depreciation.
Since beginning operations in January 2007, it has accumulated losses of NT$70 billion (US$2.15 billion) as of the end of June — about 66 percent of its paid-in capital of NT$105.3 billion — and total debts of NT$400 billion.
THSRC decided to build the three stations at the request of local residents after the three county governments offered it the land it needed for the construction.
Also See: EDITORIAL: Don’t give up on BOT yet
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