The central and local governments should start discussing the integration of Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport following the launch of the Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
Ko has made closing Songshan airport and switching all flight passengers to Taoyuan airport no later than 2020 one of his administration’s goal.
He brought the subject up again while addressing participants at a ceremony celebrating the launch of the MRT line at Taipei Main Station yesterday morning.
Photo: CNA
“The integration of Songshan and Taoyuan airports can be discussed in a more serious manner with the launch of the Wugu-Yangmei Overpass along the National Sun Yat-Sen Freeway [Freeway No.1] in 2013 and the airport MRT line,” Ko said.
“It is time that the government made a decision,” Ko said, adding that key government officials should set up a meeting to discuss the issues.
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) said that Taoyuan airport is in the process of building Terminal Three and a third runway, adding that both facilities could reserve space to absorb the passengers from Songshan airport once its ceases operations.
“However, the central government needs to determine the relationship between Songshan and Taoyuan airports,” Cheng said. “Taipei and Taoyuan need time to identify the direction of city development as well.”
Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) said that the launch of the MRT line would help ease the traffic to and from Taoyuan airport, but whether the passengers from Songshan could be swiftly and smoothly switched to the Taoyuan facility depends on progress made to facilitate the constructions of Terminal Three and the third runway.
“These two facilities, once built, would help reduce the pressure that Taoyuan airport is facing at the moment, as the number of passengers that it handles has already exceeded the combined capacity of Terminal One and Terminal Two,” Hochen said.
The ministry would also evaluate Songshan airport’s effect on the environment, he said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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