The Railway Bureau yesterday said that it would spend NT$1.13 billion (US$38.12 million) to upgrade the 16 railway stations along the South Link Line by 2024.
The line would become fully electrified by the end of this year, Bureau Chief Engineer Wen Tai-hsin (溫代欣) said in a presentation at Taitung Railway Station.
As the number of passengers accessing the line is expected to increase in the near term, the bureau has decided to renovate the facilities in the stations along the line, Wen said.
Photo: CNA
The renovation project, which is to begin next year, would ensure that each station features the distinct characteristics and cultures of the locality, he said.
The bureau would also begin researching the feasibility of two other projects, Wen said.
One is to study the possibility of enhancing operation speeds on the railway line connecting Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties; and the other is to study whether the South Link Line can be upgraded to a dual-track system and whether an express railway service can be launched on the line, he said.
The bureau would retain consulting firms to evaluate the feasibility of the projects, Wen said, adding that the evaluations would cost NT$22 million and NT$27.9 million respectively.
The consulting firms would be asked to deliver reports in 12 months and 18 months respectively, he added.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications has made building a “national express railway network” its guiding policy for the construction of railway systems, which would allow people to travel around the nation within six hours, the ministry said.
People can travel from Taipei to Kaohsiung in 90 minutes using the high-speed rail system.
As the ministry is planning to extend the high-speed rail line to Yilan and Pingtung counties, the travel time from Taipei to Hualien, as well as from Kaohsiung to Taitung, would each be reduced to 90 minutes with the combined use of the high-speed rail and Taiwan Railways Administration systems, it said.
The travel time from Hualien to Taitung would be reduced to 70 minutes with the introduction of an express railway service, it added.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that transportation would provide the basis for the development of the tourism industry.
Visitors could travel around Taiwan freely if the government made it possible for them to circle the island in six hours in either direction, he said.
The renovation of the railway stations along the South Link Line would not only benefit the residents of Taitung, but also domestic and international tourists, he said.
The renovations would involve the Dawu (大武), Longsi (瀧溪), Jinlun (金崙), Duoliang (多良), Taimali (太麻里), Jhihben (知本) and Kangle (康樂) stations in Taitung County, and the Kanding (崁頂), Nanchou (南州), Jhenan (鎮安), Linbian (林邊), Chiadong (佳冬), Donghai (東海), Chialu (加祿), Neishih (內獅) and Fangshan (枋山) stations in Pingtung County.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS