The Forestry Bureau on Saturday denied media reports that the Alishan Forest Railway (阿里山森林鐵路) has safety problems, while adding that its view on maintenance differs from that of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), which was commissioned by the bureau to manage the railway.
Considered one of the three best-known mountain railways in the world, the railway begins at Chiayi Train Station and runs 71.4km to Alishan.
Under order of the Executive Yuan, the bureau in May 2013 commissioned the TRA’s Alishan Forest Railway department to manage the railway, but the contract is to end on Dec. 31.
A series of reports in the Chinese-language United Daily News on Saturday said that senior workers on the railway protested the bureau’s involvement in the line’s management, saying they only attended to the railway when traffic accidents happened.
All construction projects have had to be approved by the bureau, but it has not taken active measures to prevent accidents, they said in the reports.
The railway’s employees hope to stay on as TRA employees, because they took recruitment examinations, they said, adding that they feared becoming contract workers with lower pay once the bureau took over.
Construction and maintenance projects are proposed and implemented by the TRA’s Alishan Forest Railway department, while the bureau’s Chiayi Forest District Office only reviews its proposals and offers advice, the bureau said in a statement.
Not every project, as the newspaper reports indicated, has to undergo review by the office, it said.
However, maintenance work on the mountain railway is challenging and the TRA department is not very efficient at completing it, the bureau said, adding that the rate at which the department does repairs only uses up 20 to 30 percent of the annual budget.
The bureau and the TRA have divergent views about the railway’s maintenance, the bureau said.
The railway is a world-class cultural asset for the bureau, which hopes to protect its original features and reduce the effect of any repairs on it.
The TRA regards the railway as a branch line of the transportation system and hopes to renew all of its facilities, the bureau said.
“This is about a difference of values and has nothing to do with expertise or safety,” it said.
The bureau does not expect to cut the salaries of the department’s employees, but plans to ensure that they have the same rights as other public servants, it said.
Most railway employees accepted the bureau’s explanation after it held several meetings in Chiayi, but a few remain doubtful, it said, adding that it would continue to communicate with them.
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