The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) plans to promote two railway lines used by the sugar industry in Yunlin and Chiayi counties as tourist attractions, connecting them to nearby high-speed rail stations.
The two sugar railways belong to state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp’s (Taisugar) Huwei Sugar Refinery Plant (虎尾糖廠) in Yunlin and Suantou Sugar Factory (蒜頭糖廠) in Chiayi.
The Huwei plant, established in 1907, is one of the company’s two sugar refineries still in operation, the Bureau of High Speed Rail said.
Photo: Chan Shih-hung, Taipei Times
The railway line to the plant is still used to ship sugarcane in the sugar producing season from December to March or April, during which railway fans would be able to see it in operation, it added.
The Suantou plant, built in 1906, was one of the three largest sugar refineries in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial era, the bureau said, adding that production was halted in 2001 after machinery was severely damaged by flooding caused by Typhoon Nari.
The railway connecting the Suantou plant was subsequently converted into a tourist line after the Chiayi County Government turned the facility and properties along the railway into the Suantou Zhecheng Cultural Park, it said, adding that the park has in recent years seen an increase in visitors due to its proximity to the National Palace Museum Southern Branch.
The plans to connect the sugar railways to high-speed rail stations in Yunlin and Chiayi have been included in the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, an NT$880 billion (US$29.1 billion) initiative proposed by the Executive Yuan that is to be carried out over the next eight years.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) on Tuesday visited both sugar railways and discussed the development plans with local government officials.
The Yunlin County Government and Taisugar are to work together to renovate the railway in the county to also carry passengers, the bureau said, adding that they plan to extend the line to the high-speed rail station in Yunlin.
The railway line, once extended, would be able to transport visitors to the Huwei plant, the high-speed rail station, sugarcane fields and farming villages nearby, it said.
The agencies are also to work on integrating tourism resources in Huwei, including plans to build a hand puppet study center and to preserve military dependents’ villages.
The Chiayi County Government plans to extend its sugar railway east to the high-speed rail station in the county and west to the National Palace Museum Southern Branch, the bureau said.
Apart from visiting tourist attractions along the line, passengers could also go cycling on bike lanes that are to be built near the railway, it added.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS