Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) Legislator Fan Yun (范雲) on Thursday slammed New Taipei City’s light rail plans, saying the proposed construction would damage Tamsui District’s (淡水) cultural heritage and tourism industry.
The city has adopted the “riverside route” for the second phase of the Danhai Light Rail Transit system after a previous proposal to build a line through the district’s storied Old Street area was abandoned amid a community backlash.
The city’s proposed light rail routes have successively jeopardized the Old Street’s cultural scene and the waterfront view that are Tamsui’s most valuable assets, Fan said.
Photo: CNA
That the city government chose to build along the riverside after local residents had voiced their displeasure with the Old Street plan suggests sloppy work on the part of the city government and its disregard for the public’s wishes, she told a news conference in Taipei.
During a townhall-style meeting on March 23 last year, 15 residents voiced their concern about the light rail project, saying it could cause traffic congestion that could endanger pedestrians, she said.
Unfazed by the criticism, the city formalized the riverside plan the following month, she said.
The Blue Seaside Line could be extended via the addition of bus stops, and the city government should not present light rail as the only viable option, she said.
Based on the law, the light rail plan must be approved by the central government and lawmakers will have the opportunity to scrutinize the plan, Fan said.
Citing city’s plans, Tamkang University associate professor of architecture Huang Jui-mao (黃瑞茂) said the 11.5m-wide path of the waterfront cannot safely accommodate the 7m-wide dual gauge light rail the authorities envision.
“This leaves a shopfront space of just 2.65m and a pedestrian path of 1.5m,” he said. “Pedestrians will not have enough space and their safety would be compromised, because they have to share the road with the light rail.”
Minan Borough (民安) Warden Chen Ying-he (鄭英和), convener of the Anti-Light Rail Construction on the Old Street and the Waterfront Action Alliance, said that Tamsui’s Golden Harbor is among the nation’s finest waterside scenic walkways and the area should be exempted from the city’s infrastructure building program.
The city’s latest policy could fritter away years of careful planning that have made Tamsui into the scenic area it is today, Tamsui Culture Foundation chairman James Hui-ming Hsu (許慧明) said.
“The area between the [Tamsui] mass rapid transit station and Fort San Domingo is the most vital part of Tamsui’s landscape, and it will be ruined if the city builds a light rail on the river bank,” he said.
In a separate statement, the alliance said the light rail plan does not give full consideration to the area’s geological and water engineering conditions, which could pose a threat to public safety during floods or typhoons.
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