The curve radius on several railway sections is to be increased for about NT$12 billion (US$388.97 million) following the derailment of a Puyuma Express train in Yilan County on Oct. 21 last year, the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said yesterday.
The derailment, which killed 18 people and injured 215, raised questions about whether tilting trains should slow down more when passing through curves and whether some tight curves might pose a risk to passengers.
Trains need to slow down when passing through tight curves to ensure safety, the agency said.
The speed limit in curves is 65kph for regular trains and 75kph for tilting trains, it said.
Prior to the derailment, the agency had already identified 35 railway sections with relatively small radii, it said, adding that 16 have been addressed as part of the Railway Bureau’s electrification of the dual-track line between Hualien and Taitung.
The TRA filed a proposal to increase the other 19 sections’ radii with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and Executive Yuan for final approval in October last year, before the derailment, it said.
However, the proposal did not cover the curve near Sinma (新馬) Railway Station where the derailment occurred. The agency added that section to the project last month.
The section was not originally included because the station stands by the curve, and would have to be torn down and be rebuilt at a different location if the curve were to be stretched.
However, local officials did not object to the station’s relocation, the agency said, adding that construction would be limited to public land and no homes would need to be demolished.
The agency has budgeted NT$600 million to move the station closer to the north end of Wulaokeng Bridge (武荖坑橋), it said, adding that construction would begin next year and be finished in 2022.
When completed, the new station would be about 2.75km from Dongshan (冬山) Railway Station and 2.35km from New Suao Railway Station (蘇澳新站), and the curve radius would have increased from 306m to 500m, the agency said.
Meanwhile, 16 sections between the Houdong (猴硐) and Shuangsi (雙溪) Railway stations have radii smaller than 500m.
To address the problem, the agency said that a new tunnel of about 7.4km would be dug to stretch the average radius to 1,500m.
The operational speed on the section could be maintained at 130kph once work is completed in 2025, the agency said, adding that total construction costs are estimated to reach NT$9.54 billion.
Other sections with radii smaller than 600m are lie between the Gueishan (龜山) and Waiao (外澳) railway stations, the agency said.
Heavy rainfall often causes flooding of railway tracks and the collapse of retaining walls, so the agency has decided to move the railway tracks west and build a 1km-long tunnel, it said.
That project is expected to cost NT$1.95 billion and would be completed in 2022, the agency said.
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