President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) recently expressed his dissatisfaction with plans for the Taoyuan International Airport Access MRT System (TIAA). He demanded that the commute between the airport and Taipei Railway Station _be shortened from an estimated 35 minutes to 20 or 25 minutes. The MRT system was announced 20 years ago, but is not expected to be up and running until October 2014 at the earliest.
Mass transit systems can be divided into three categories: intercity high-speed rail systems, local suburban MRT systems and urban MRT systems. The TIAA is an example of an urban MRT system linking major urban centers and their surrounding areas. It was originally planned to link Taipei City, Sanchong, Sinjhuang, Linkou, Taishan, Taoyuan and Chungli. If it had been designed to run straight from Taipei City to the airport, instead of where it is now located in Cingpu (青埔), Taoyuan County, it would be a genuine intercity high-speed rail system.
In other words, the TIAA has been designed to service several suburban areas as well as Taipei, while simultaneously serving the airport and areas along the line after the Airport Zone project is completed.
TIAA planners could learn a lot from the Tokyo Metro. We could have a through train running straight from Taipei Railway Station to the airport and back, an ordinary train that only stops at major stations and a local train that calls at every stop. Through trains could run every 15 minutes, with ordinary and local train services, scheduled to reflect demand, running in the intervals.
The journey between Taipei Railway Station and the airport for through trains could then be reduced to 28 minutes. This falls slightly short of Ma’s demands, but a dependable service and traffic congestions would probably persuade people to use the TIAA. Passengers would take the TIAA provided scheduling was timely, tickets were reasonably priced and various airline companies offered baggage handling and flight check in services at Taipei Railway Station, as is the case with Hong Kong’s Airport Express. This also means we could conserve energy and lower carbon emissions.
The TIAA must cater to future transportation needs that will come after the Airport Zone project is completed. It should also service the surrounding areas, linking them with Taipei City, Sanchong, Sinjhuang, Linkou, Taishan and Chongli. How about reasonably priced user-friendly shuttle bus services from each station along the line, with discounts for tourists and frequent users who live along the lines and use electronic payment technology.
The delays in construction and constant changing of contractors have been bad for the reputation of Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects in Taiwan. Lessons have to be learned from these mistakes, and the government needs to plan things more carefully. The first step toward this goal must involve clearly defining the goals of BOT projects and undertaking comprehensive planning before contracts are signed.
To suddenly demand that the TIAA pass through the airport while also providing mass transit services to the surrounding areas is simply asking too much. In another example of poor planning, the contractors changed their minds halfway through the project and demanded suppliers provide the On-Board Units used for Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) free of charge.
The government should clearly define the goals of major transportation projects to make them user-friendly, green and well-designed transportation systems. Otherwise these transportation systems will fall short of their potential.
Lee Ke-tsung is an associate professor of traffic and transportation at engineerng and management at Feng Chia University.
TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has its chairperson election tomorrow. Although the party has long positioned itself as “China friendly,” the election is overshadowed by “an overwhelming wave of Chinese intervention.” The six candidates vying for the chair are former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), former lawmaker Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文), Legislator Luo Chih-chiang (羅智強), Sun Yat-sen School president Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), former National Assembly representative Tsai Chih-hong (蔡志弘) and former Changhua County comissioner Zhuo Bo-yuan (卓伯源). While Cheng and Hau are front-runners in different surveys, Hau has complained of an online defamation campaign against him coming from accounts with foreign IP addresses,
Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on Saturday won the party’s chairperson election with 65,122 votes, or 50.15 percent of the votes, becoming the second woman in the seat and the first to have switched allegiance from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to the KMT. Cheng, running for the top KMT position for the first time, had been termed a “dark horse,” while the biggest contender was former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), considered by many to represent the party’s establishment elite. Hau also has substantial experience in government and in the KMT. Cheng joined the Wild Lily Student
When Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) announced the implementation of a new “quiet carriage” policy across all train cars on Sept. 22, I — a classroom teacher who frequently takes the high-speed rail — was filled with anticipation. The days of passengers videoconferencing as if there were no one else on the train, playing videos at full volume or speaking loudly without regard for others finally seemed numbered. However, this battle for silence was lost after less than one month. Faced with emotional guilt from infants and anxious parents, THSRC caved and retreated. However, official high-speed rail data have long
Starting next year, drivers older than 70 may be entitled to a monthly NT$1,500 public transportation and taxi subsidy if they relinquish their driver’s license, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced on Tuesday. The measure is part of a broader effort to improve road safety, with eligible participants receiving the subsidy for two years. The announcement comes amid mounting concern over traffic safety in Taiwan. A 2022 article by CNN quoted the name of a Facebook group devoted to the traffic situation called “Taiwan is a living hell for pedestrians,” while Berlin-based bne IntelliNews last month called it a “deadly
RSS