The Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) is planning massive adjustments to its schedules again, which will take effect on Dec. 22.
The TRA plan calls for adding 70 train services on its Shalun (沙崙) branch line, which is scheduled to begin operations on Jan. 1, connecting the TRA’s station in Tainan City with the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) station in Gueiren (歸仁), Tainan County.
With the Keelung Station soon moving to a new building, the departures and arrivals of 130 trains at the station will be changed as well.
The administration said it would do some minor adjustments on about 50 other trains, with the change of travel times ranging from three to five minutes. The adjustment would mainly affect the passengers along the west coast.
Chen Wen-chi (陳文淇), deputy director of the General Dispatch Office, said that four Fuhsing-class (復興號) train services will be upgraded to Chukuang-class (莒光號) services, and there will no longer be any Fuhsing-class trains along the west coast.
The four Fuhsing-class trains operating along the South-Link Line (南迴鐵路) will be upgraded to Chukuang-class or Tzuchiang-class (自強號) services, he said, a move that was designed to allow HSR passengers to take TRA trains to Taitung after they transfer at the Zuoying station in Kaohsiung.
Some of the trains will run faster after the adjustments and a small number will take longer instead. The travel time of a Chukuang train, for example, was found to be three minutes longer after the adjustment.
Chen said the TRA encouraged commuters to comment on the draft of the adjusted schedule, which will be finalized at the end of this month.
During a review of the TRA’s budget for next year’s fiscal year at the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said trains would run slower even as train fares increase.
The TRA said that the express train passes through several sections that are undergoing work and that they have to slow down when passing through these sections.
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