Current plans to reconstruct Taipei’s Xinbeitou (新北投) train station are illegal and historically inaccurate, activists said yesterday.
“Under Plan B [proposed by the Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs], the station would not be a station — it would just be a park pavilion,” said student activist Chen Po-han (陳柏翰) of the Battao Independent Action Alliance, condemning department plans to place the structure away from its original foundations and for failing to reconstruct the station platform.
Built in 1916, the station served as the terminal stop on the rail line to Beitou’s hot spring resorts before being moved to Changhua to make room for the construction of the Xinbeitou Mass Rapid Transit Station.
Since the Taipei City Government repurchased the structure in 2013, relocating it has been delayed due to controversy over reconstruction details, with current plans calling for it to be located in the middle of Qixing Park (七星公園), which is next to its original foundations.
Chen said the station and its attached platform should be tilted slightly on their original foundations, with a neighboring road narrowed to create space for the building and surrounding sidewalk.
Activists also questioned whether the structure could be designated as “cultural heritage” under department plans.
Battao Independent Action Alliance member Hsiao Wen-chieh (蕭文杰) said the department’s reconstruction plans feature inconsistent sketches of the structure, adding that measurements for the final structure were also historically inaccurate, while department plans also called for the use of substandard wood.
Chinese Cultural University professor of landscaping Yang Chung-hsin (楊重信) said it was possible the structure would lose its “cultural heritage” designation if it was not rebuilt on its original foundations. Without the designation, reconstruction within the park would be illegal, he said.
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