The Forestry Bureau will supervise the operation of the Alishan Forest Railway, ownership of which was transferred from the bureau to a private company on Thursday to ensure safe and comfortable services for passengers, bureau Director Yen Jen-te (顏仁德) said yesterday.
The bureau transferred the right to operate the railway to the Hungtu Construction Co (宏都公司), which won a build-operate-transfer project passed in 2006 to privatize the management of the railway for the next 30 years.
Under the project, the company is contracted to operate and maintain the railway, including the stations along the route.
It will also build a five-star hotel near the rail network’s Jhaoping Station and develop 0.9 hectares of land surrounding Peimen Station.
A group of Alishan residents and members of the Alishan Community Development Association staged a protest against the transfer at Alishan Station on Tuesday, accusing the bureau of carrying out the project before an environmental impact evaluation has been done.
They also questioned the company’s ability to operate the railway, claiming that the company does not have enough experienced drivers who can safely operate the narrow-gauge railway.
The railway has had several accidents over the years. In 2003, 17 people were killed and 156 injured when a train derailed near Alishan Station. Four other derailings occurred between March and last month alone, leaving several injured but causing no fatalities.
Yen said that Hungtu’s construction projects would only start after environmental evaluations and the bureau would make sure the company’s operations do not violate regulations.
The nearly 100-year-old Alishan Forest Railway is an 86km narrow-gauge rail network running up to and throughout the popular mountain resort of Alishan. It was constructed by the Japanese colonial government in 1912 to facilitate the logging industry, but now caters to tourists.
The area attracts nearly 900,000 visitors every year, but the railway is a money-losing business that generates just NT$100 million (US$3.29 million) in revenues at an operation cost of NT$300 million a year.
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