Plans for the green line of the Taoyuan MRT have passed an environmental impact assessment, the Taoyuan County Government said yesterday, meaning construction on the line that will link Taoyuan City to the airport could begin as soon as next year.
Taoyuan County will submit the assessment results along with a general planning report to the Executive Yuan for approval, and expects the project to be passed in late September.
The county’s Transportation Bureau estimated that construction on the line, which runs through the cities of Bade (八德), Taoyuan and Luzhu (蘆竹), could start in June next year for completion by 2019.
The green line has been officially named the “Aerotropolis Line,” because it will pass through the county’s ambitious airport city project and connect to Taipei through the Airport MRT (purple) line.
The planned north-south route will pass through four proposed urban projects in Danan (Bade), Taoyuan City, Nankan (Luzhu) and Guolin (Dayuan Township).
According to the plans, the green line will run 27.8km and stop at 21 stations (10 underground and 11 elevated.)
The daily passenger volume on the line is expected to reach 500,000.
The corridor that makes up Bade, Taoyuan City and Luzhu is home to nearly 747,000 people.
County officials said the green line would help ease traffic volume on main roads in the densely populated area by between 10 and 25 percent and improve the transport environment.
Once the line comes into service, it could help significantly cut down the time needed to travel from downtown Taoyuan to Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan’s major gateway to the world.
While the airport is only about 20km from downtown, the two direct routes in the densely populated area are prone to congestion.
Nonetheless, some residents have expressed concern that while the line would improve connectivity and convenience, it could also cause nearby housing prices to soar in an area that is already home to some of Taiwan’s fastest-growing real-estate prices.
The residents say they hope that the central and county governments can come up with effective housing policies to mitigate the impact.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai