Three agencies under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop railway tourism along the Jiji Line (集集線).
Operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), the line was built in 1919 to provide transportation between two hydropower plants at Nantou County’s Sun Moon Lake (日月潭).
However, the line was severely damaged in the 921 Earthquake in 1999 and did not resume operations until January 2001. It has gradually become a railway mostly used for tourism.
Photo: CNA
The line has also become a popular setting to film movies and TV episodes, including a TV film titled Remember We’re in Love (記得我們愛過) that was produced by the Public Television Service.
The Jiji Line is a sister railway to Japan’s Isumi Railway and Tenryu Hamanako Railroad, partnerships that were formed in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) last year entrusted Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) with “adopting” the Jiji Line when the THSRC celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Yesterday’s memorandum was signed by the TRA, THSRC and the Tourism Bureau, with the agencies committing to working together to develop tourism along the corridor created by the Jiji Line.
The TRA had been thinking about how to change its business model before the high-speed rail system was launched, agency Director-General Jason Lu (鹿潔身) said, adding that the agency performs even better than before after entering into competition with the high-speed rail system.
“However, we have to consider development in other areas, and railway tourism is one of them,” he said, adding that the agency would continue offering cruise and charter trains for tour groups.
Lu said the Jiji Line is the longest of the three branch lines operated by the TRA.
The Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, a national program to revamp the nation’s infrastructure, has allocated NT$2.36 billion (US$81.2 million) to improve the infrastructure of the Jiji Line and enhance the safety of the embankment, he said.
The partnership with THSRC would further contribute to the development of railway tourism, he said, adding that this could help boost TRA revenue.
“As it is a public transport system, the TRA’s ticket prices are highly regulated by the government,” Lu said. “We have not been able to adjust our ticket prices for 23 years. Railway tourism is a great opportunity for us to design tour packages with reasonable prices.”
“Not only do we need railways, but we also need partnerships with local governments,” he said.
The price of a railway tour must reasonably reflect the costs of operating tourism railways, the rarity of tourism resources and the characteristics of the railway, Hochen said.
“This does not mean that we have to set a higher price for railway tours,” he said. “It would be unreasonable if it is higher than the ticket price of the high-speed rail system, especially when you compare the speed and construction standards of a branch line with those of the high-speed railway system.”
Granting more flexibility in how railway tour prices are set would mean amending some of the relevant regulations, Hochen said, adding that such an amendment would take about a year to complete.
The nation’s first railway tourism school is to open in June, Tourism Bureau Director-General Chou Yong-hui (周永暉) said, adding that it is housed in a renovated elementary school.
The bureau plans to work with the TRA and THSRC to create specially decorated trains to promote railway tours on the Jiji Line, Chou added.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS