A policy adviser for the Executive Yuan on Tuesday urged Premier William Lai (賴清德) to suspend the review of railway grade separation projects, saying they would increase the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) operational costs and limit the nation’s railway transport capacity.
Chang Sheng-hsiung (張勝雄), a professor at Tamkang University’s department of transportation management, in an open letter to the premier said that many local governments have been seeking support from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for railway grade separation projects, which could involve either building bridges or underground tunnels.
In addition to completed projects in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, as well as Pingtung County and Changhua County’s Yuanlin Township (員林), the ministry is reviewing railway grade separations projects, including those in Tainan and Taichung, Chiayi and Changhua counties, which have a total estimated cost of more than NT$100 billion (US$3.24 billion).
Chang said he has identified major issues with the projects under review.
First, the central government would provide most of the funding for the projects, with the local governments contributing only small amounts, he said.
The TRA, instead of local governments, would be in charge of operating and maintaining the railway systems after the projects are completed, Chang said, adding that local governments should also be held financially accountable for the projects.
However, it seems like the central government is recklessly writing checks, knowing that somebody else would pick up the tab, Chang said.
The projects are not feasible and do not specify why they are needed in the first place, he said.
Chang asked why a railway station in a town of 90,000 people would need a parking lot with 2,000 spaces.
Although the ministry has claimed that the projects would be beneficial, as they would lead to the development of the areas around the railway stations, Chang said that the development plans have a high degree of uncertainty, as they would require changes to urban planning and expropriation of private properties, which would be time-consuming.
The projects would not only increase the TRA’s operational costs, but also limit the transport capacity of the nation’s railway system, he said, adding that the railway operator would also have trouble delivering a comprehensive transport plan with so many different grade separation projects.
To address the issues, the ministry should suspend the review of the feasibility studies of the projects and conduct a policy impact assessment, Chang said.
The ministry should also help local governments identify the causes of traffic problems and come up with possible ways to improve traffic near railway crossings, he said, adding that records of the review meetings should be made public so that people can provide their input.
The ministry said that the Regulations for Grants from Central Government to the Municipalities and Local Governments (中央對直轄市及縣市政府補助辦法) stipulates that local governments should calculate the complementary funds that they should pay by taking into account the profits that could be created through land development, taxes and other revenues.
City or county councils must also approve the payment of the complementary funds, it said.
If local governments fail to make the payments on time, the central government would deduct the amount from the subsidies provided to them, it 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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,