Academics and environmental activists sounded alarms over the newly announced Taipei-Yilan railway project, saying that the proposed route holds high risks as it passes through six active faults and 30 underground mining sites.
Critics said construction of the route would be fraught with danger caused by rock collapses, landslides and structural failures, due to the route traversing a region of known geological instability and which has already been weakened by past mining operations and earthquakes.
Environmentalists also voiced opposition to the project, since developing the proposed 53km rail route will cause destruction of wilderness habitats and fragile mountain-forest ecosystems, and cause pollution problems in the area.
Many critics questioned the amount of government funds allocated for the project, which is to save time on rail trips between Taipei and Yilan.
“Is it worth spending NT$49.1 billion [US$1.62 billion] on the construction [of the rail route] to save 38 minutes of travel time?” one of the skeptics asked.
Academic researcher Lee Ker-tsung (李克聰) said building the line calls for drilling tunnels and construction work close to 30 existing mine sites, which will pose a high risk of collapse and structural failure.
Lee, a professor in Feng Jia University’s department of transportation technology and management, pointed to a long tale of woes around building the Hsuehshan Tunnel, which links Taipei and Yilan and was finally completed in 2006, eight years behind schedule.
He said the Hsuehshan Tunnel is 12.9km long, but it took 15 years to build as 63 collapses occurred during construction, and there were many episodes of major flooding from groundwater.
“The geological report for this new project is not yet available, yet the Railway Reconstruction Bureau has already set a completion date of 2026. This is an overly optimistic schedule,” Lee said.
Green Formosa Front Association (綠色陣線協會) executive director Lin Chang-mao (林長茂) said that the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) would likely encounter major problems while working in a very complicated geological zone with known earthquake activity.
“This route passes under or close to many existing deep coal and mineral mines, but the TRA will go ahead with the construction, despite not having done a thorough geological investigation. This amounts to playing with the lives of rail passengers,” he said.
Lin added that detailed information is needed regarding the length, width, slope angle and pillar frame level of the mine shafts, but data from the Bureau of Mines are sketchy at best.
“In the past, mining in Taiwan mostly relied on the use of acacia wood to rig up simple frame and pillar supports. After years of neglect, they could be crumbling or have already failed. The government does not even know if these mine shafts are now flooded by water,” he said.
“When earthquakes strike, the mine shafts and the surrounding rock structures are prone to collapse,” Lin added. “The route calls for a number of long tunnels through the mountains. If an explosion or a collapse is to occur, trains may be derailed and passengers could have difficulties making their escape.”
In response, a TRA official, who declined to give his name, said: “The sites through which the new route will pass are mostly small-scale mine shafts. These will not pose major engineering problems… When the rail link is completed, freight trains carrying cargo will not run on it, to reduce the risks.”
Additional reporting by Ho Yu-hua, Wang Yang-yu and Chen Wei-tzu
EVA Airways today confirmed the death of a flight attendant on Saturday upon their return to Taiwan and said an internal investigation has been launched, as criticism mounted over a social media post accusing the airline of failing to offer sufficient employee protections. According to the post, the flight attendant complained of feeling sick on board a flight, but was unable to take sick leave or access medical care. The crew member allegedly did not receive assistance from the chief purser, who failed to heed their requests for medical attention or call an ambulance once the flight landed, the post said. As sick
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taichung District Court yesterday confirmed its final ruling that the marriage between teenage heir Lai (賴) and a man surnamed Hsia (夏) was legally invalid, preventing Hsia from inheriting Lai’s NT$500 million (US$16.37 million) estate. The court confirmed that Hsia chose not to appeal the civil judgement after the court handed down its ruling in June, making the decision final. In the June ruling, the court said that Lai, 18, and Hsia, 26, showed “no mutual admiration before the marriage” and that their interactions were “distant and unfamiliar.” The judge concluded that the couple lacked the “true intention of
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
RSS