Minister Without Portfolio Wu Tze-cheng (吳澤成) on Tuesday announced that an old forestry railway on Taiping Mountain (太平山) in Yilan County is to recommence operations after 40 years.
The railway was built to transport people and wood from felled Taiwan cypress trees. The line runs 37km between Datong (大同) and Luodong (羅東) townships and began operations in 1924.
Typhoon Della severely damaged the railway in 1978 and it shut down in 1979 due to declining ridership.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The railway has significant historical and tourism value, as it was part of the heyday of railway transportation and its decline, Wu said.
Attempts to relaunch the railway when he was Yilan commissioner failed, as there was no central government agency overseeing such efforts, he said.
As a minister without portfolio, Wu said he is in a unique position to facilitate collaborations between the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Council of Agriculture and others.
A consensus was reached at a cross-departmental meeting that the railway has historical value, Wu said.
As Yilan County has over the years applied to restore sections, the decision was made to reopen the entire line to prevent a lack of overall planning leading to a waste of resources, he said.
The county government is to submit a proposal by late next year, Wu said.
Japan’s Enoshima Electric Railway is to be consulted over merging a railway and a light-rail system, as regulations prohibit shared railway-road paths, Wu said, adding that the county government would also propose legislative amendments or drafts to facilitate the plans.
The estimated cost of the project is NT$8 million (US$254,437), with the ministry contributing 86 percent and the county shouldering the rest, he said.
While the line should follow the existing track as much as possible, alternative routes could be considered should there be difficulties, the ministry said.
The project could be separated into two construction phases, with the first focused on the section between the Jhulin (竹林) area in Luodong and Tiansongbei (天送碑) Station in Sansing Township (三星), and the second phase from Tiansongbei to the Tuyang (土揚) area.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS