Construction of the first phase of the light rail system in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) is 30.95 percent complete, the city’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems announced on Friday.
Work began on the 9.52km first phase of the project in September 2014 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018.
The department also announced the Chinese names of the 14 stops to be built in the current phase of the project, but the English names have yet to be decided.
Photo: CNA, provided by the New Taipei City Government
The tram system’s first phase encompasses 14 stops on two tram lines — the Lushan (Green Mountain) Line, which has 11 stops, and the Lanhai (Blue Seaside) Line, which has three stops.
The Lushan Line starts from the Hongshulin MRT station and runs along Zhongzheng E Road, Provincial Highway No. 2, Binhai Road and Shalun Road, and ends near the Danhai New Town project.
The Lanhai Line shares the 1.21km section of track and three stops along Shalun Road with the Lushan Line before going in the other direction on Binhai Road and ending at Fisherman’s Wharf.
The first phase is being built by a consortium led by the government-invested China Steel Corp.
The department said it plans to unveil the carriages to be used on the tram lines, which are being built locally by Taiwan Rolling Stock Co, by the end of this year.
The total budget for the Danhai light-rail system, including a second phase to extend the Lanhai Line along the Tamsui River between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Tamsui metro station, is NT$15.3 billion (US$474.24 million), according to the department.
The tram lines are part of the development of the 1,748.7 hectare Danhai New Town, which was launched in 1992 and hopes to attract a population of 300,000 by 2036.
As of last month, the total population of Tamsui District was 163,141, according to city government statistics.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS