The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday said it would conduct a feasibility study this year on a proposal to extend high-speed rail (HSR) services to Pingtung County.
The study is to include technical and legal issues, land acquisition, costs and environmental impact among other details, the Railway Reconstruction Bureau said.
When the report is completed, it will be presented to the Cabinet for consideration, the bureau said.
The high-speed rail system, which began commercial operations in 2007, stretches 350km between terminal stations in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) and Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營), with 10 stations in between.
The proposal to extend the line to Pingtung was proposed by Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) of the Democratic Progressive Party.
However, Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) said this week that conditions are not yet right for such a project and that the ministry has no plans to make it a priority.
Pan yesterday said Hochen’s comments showed that the minister was looking at the proposal from a Taipei perspective and he had hurt the feelings of Pingtung residents by responding to their request with a “cold and arrogant” attitude.
Pingtung residents pay the same taxes as other people, but do not have access to convenient transportation, Pan said.
Pingtung’s rail services are older than those in Hualien and Taitung counties, while its air services are not as good as in offshore counties, he said.
Pan said that the development of Taiwan’s transportation network would be far from comprehensive if it focused only on urban regions and ignored rural areas.
Pingtung has a population of about 835,000.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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