A proposed high-speed rail extension to Yilan County must be reviewed and approved by the Environmental Protection Administration’s environmental impact assessment committee before construction could begin, Minister Without Portfolio Wu Tze-cheng (吳澤成) said yesterday, adding that people should not politicize the project.
Wu, who chairs the Public Construction Commission, made the statement on the sidelines of a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee, where he was scheduled to answer questions from lawmakers about the commission’s annual budget.
Based on the Railway Bureau’s proposal unveiled on Wednesday, the extension to Yilan would be nearly 50km long and would reduce travel time between Taipei and Yilan to 13 minutes.
The project is estimated to cost about NT$95.5 billion (US$3.12 million).
Apart from the high-speed rail extension line, the bureau is also evaluating the feasibility of building a new express railway between Taipei and Yilan, which would be 50.9km long and operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA).
The project is estimated to cost about NT$66.83 billion.
However, the high-speed rail extension has come under criticism, with some transportation experts calling it a pork barrel rolled out just before the presidential and legislative elections in January.
They have also accused the Ministry of Transportation and Communications of disregarding administrative procedures by skipping a project feasibility study and going straight into comprehensive planning.
Wu told reporters that the proposed TRA route and high-speed rail extension would pass through the catchment area of the Feitsuei Reservoir, the main source of water supply in Greater Taipei.
“The project assessment did not just start two days ago. The government will continue to draw public infrastructure plans with or without an election. People should not politicize the project,” he said.
“I was born and raised in Yilan and was the Yilan County commissioner. I can say that the traffic inside the Hsuehshan Tunnel on the Chiang Wei-Shui Freeway [Freeway No. 5] during long weekends or major national holidays is indeed a nightmare. It would only get worse once the Suhua Highway Improvement Project is completed. The high-speed rail extension line might help solve this problem and make it easier to secure train tickets to the east coast,” he said.
The minister said that it is difficult for the TRA to increase train services to Yilan using the current railway route, adding that a new express railway line would be helpful in improving the overall transportation system.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said that the ministry was granted permission to also consider using the high-speed rail system to connect Taipei and Yilan when the Executive Yuan approved the feasibility study for the “Taipei-Yilan Express Railway Line” project.
The high-speed rail extension line would be built from Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) to Yilan, he said, adding that it has secured the right to use the corridor from Nangang to New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止).
Despite the lower cost, the new TRA express route would still go through Shulin (樹林) and Nangang railway stations, which are two bottleneck sections, Wang said.
This would greatly limit the service capacity increase that could be generated through the construction of a new express railway line, he said.
As such, the ministry decided to consider building a high-speed rail extension line with an eye to increasing service capacity, he said.
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