Faced with questioning from the nation's railway enthusiasts, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday that it is still evaluating the possibility of having the nation's two largest railway systems share the same railway tracks from Kaohsiung to Pingtung.
"It [the Taiwan High Speed Rail Co (THSRC) and the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) using the same railway lines] is merely a proposal at this stage," the MOTC said in a statement issued yesterday. "More assessment needs to be done on this particular issue."
The statement further emphasized that the Bureau of High Speed Rail and the TRA have been respectively instructed to examine train scheduling and other relevant issues.
The ministry also said in the statement that the Railway Reconstruction Bureau has evaluated the feasibility of turning the railway tracks between Kaohsiung and Pingtung into a dual-gauge system.
Currently, the international standard gauge is 1,435mm. While the THSRC adopts the standard gauge, TRA uses a narrower gauge of 1,067mm.
The proposal suggested that a third rail line be built next to the existing two rails, enabling trains of two different gauges to share the same track. Such an arrangement would allow the high speed rail to operate all the way from Taipei to Pingtung.
So far, THSRC's terminal station in the south is in Tsoying (
The statement mentioned that the two projects scheduled FOR submission to the Executive Yuan this week are related to construction of underground railways in Kaohsiung City and the MRT system in Pingtung County's Chaochou (
The ministry said it is simply following the administrative timeline arranged previously.
The proposal was first unveiled to the media last year by the MOTC vice minister Ho Nuan Hsuen (
Ho said that having a third rail line would allow trains to run faster.
Railway enthusiasts, however, opposed the idea.
Cheng Min-chang (
Cheng said that countries that chose to adopt the dual-gauge system are generally restricted by topographical factors. Meanwhile, he said that experiences in other countries showed that the system does not help elevate operational speed either.
"The solution is to build a mass-transit system in the Kaohsiung-Pingtung area, which potentially poses greater benefits than this controversial proposal," the letter said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe