A site 350m south of the Yilan County Hall has been assessed and found to be the optimal location for a proposed high-speed rail (HSR) station, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
“We’ve received positive feedback from everyone on this proposal, including from Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌),” Wang said.
Work on the project is expected to begin in 2025 and be completed by 2036, he added.
Photo: Lin Ching-lun, Taipei Times
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications proposed the site as a fifth option during an information session on Nov. 17, saying that the rail line would bypass downtown Yilan.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀) said at the time that the majority of Yilan residents wanted the high-speed rail station to be in downtown Yilan, but did not want the project to interfere with construction of the Yilan Railway Overpass at Yilan Station.
The ministry said the contractor would build the new high-speed rail station to have a platform for the Taiwan Railways Administration’s elevated rail, which would run between Yilan Station and Luodong Station in the south.
Another announcement on the project would be made before the end of the month, it said.
A draft plan would be reviewed by the ministry before next month, which, if approved, would go through an environmental impact assessment, Wang said.
The proposed site had the approval of Chen, Su, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃), Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tzu-miao (林姿妙), Yilan County Council Speaker Chang Chien-jung (張建榮), Yilan City Mayor Chiang Tsung-yuan (江聰淵) and other county officials, he said.
However, the ministry was still in talks with Jiaosi Township (礁溪) officials, he added.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
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The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
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