The Railway Bureau’s proposed extension of the Taiwan High-Speed Rail (THSR) system to Yilan County was submitted to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) last week, even though the bureau has yet to decide on the terminus station.
Extending the line from Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) — the system’s current northern terminus — to Yilan is part of the ministry’s proposed plans to facilitate transportation between the west and east coasts.
Previously, the ministry had planned to build a direct Taipei-Yilan line for the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) system.
Photo: Hou Cheng-hsu, Taipei Times
The bureau last year began planning for a high-speed rail extension to Yilan, and a final report was submitted to the ministry on Thursday for review.
Prior to the publication of the final report, the Yilan County Government sent a letter to the bureau suggesting that the terminal station be at a TRA station planned for near Yilan County Hall, which is not scheduled to be built until 2030.
Such a station would be near a new town that has grown up around the county hall over the years, the county government said.
The town, which is in the center of the Lanyang Plain, has a complete infrastructure nearby and is close to the county hall, the Yilan County Council Building and the Yilan Science Park, it said.
A THSR line to the station there would boost urban development as well as the growth of the high-tech industry there, it said.
However, the bureau said the site of the terminus for Yilan would depend on the outcome of its negotiations with county officials, and it has presented four technically feasible options: a terminal station at the TRA’s Sicheng (四城), Yilan or Luodong (羅東) stations or the new station planned near the county hall.
All the possible extension routes would bypass the watershed of the Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫) in New Taipei City, it said.
The route between Nangang and Sicheng stations would be about 47.4km, one from Nangang to Yilan would be about 56.4km, a Nangang-Luodong route would be about 67.4km and one between Nangang and the planned station near the county hall about 60.4km, the bureau said.
Travel time to any of the four proposed stations would be about the same, so it would not be a factor in the final decision, the bureau said.
Extendingd the high-speed rail line to the Yilan or Luodong stations, which already have developed business districts nearby, would greatly facilitate travelers’ transfers to other public transport systems, but would involve the relocation of more homes, the bureau’s assessment showed.
Extending the line to Sincheng or the planned railway station would boost the development of new towns and involve fewer relocations of homes, the bureau said.
Once the Executive Yuan approves the project, it would need to be reviewed by the Environmental Impact Assessment Committee by April, the bureau said.
If the project wins the committee’s approval, it would take 11 years to build the extension, it added.
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