A 90-year-old railway in New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來) was reopened yesterday after nearly two years of reconstruction following Typhoon Soudelor.
The train’s three carriages transport passengers 1.5km between Wulai Station and Waterfall Station.
There will be a discounted fare of NT$30 until the end of next month.
Photo: Chang An-chiao, Taipei Times
The railway is a landmark of the district along with Wulai Waterfall, Lansheng Bridge and Neidong National Forest Recreation Park, Premier Lin Chuan (林全) said at the reopening ceremony, adding that the area has the potential to become an international tourist attraction.
The originally hand-pulled railway was built in 1928 during the Japanese colonial period to transport logs, tea and passengers, Forestry Bureau Director-General Lin Hua-ching (林華慶) said.
“After the highway was completed in 1951, most sections of the railway were demolished except for the 1.5km portion,” he said.
Typhoon Soudelor in August 2015 caused serious damage to the remaining portion of the railway, 120m of which completely collapsed, he said.
“Much of the reconstruction work was done by hand as big machines could not operate on the narrow roads,” he said, adding that the work was finished last month.
Chu Hung-chi (朱鴻基), who used to pull the carts as a teenager, gave many photographs to a museum by Wulai Station.
Chu said that in the 1960s, he met many tourists from the US who would give him enough tips in a single day to purchase a bag of rice.
His two grandsons said they were glad to see the railway reopen, but expressed hope that the Aboriginal Atayal people’s culture could be featured more in local tourism.
The railway closure dealt a blow to local businesses, a cafe shopkeeper surnamed Lin (林) said, adding that their cafe only barely stayed afloat thanks to some regulars and bicyclists.
“When the typhoon struck, our houses were washed over by mudslides because the bureau did not properly maintain fortifications on the slope,” Lin said, adding that they were still negotiating compensation with bureau officials.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
RSS