Construction on an underground railway project between New Taipei City and Taoyuan is to begin in April next year, the Railway Bureau said yesterday.
The project is part of the Executive Yuan’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
A master plan for the project was approved by the Executive Yuan in September last year.
Photo courtesy of the Railway Bureau
The 17.9km route extends from New Taipei City’s Yingge District (鶯歌) to Taoyuan’s Pingjhen District (平鎮), bureau Director-General Allen Hu (胡湘麟) said.
The NT$104.8 billion (US$3.70 billion) project would involve revamping the railway stations at Taoyuan, Neili (內壢) and Jhungli (中壢), and building five new commuter stations at Fongming (鳳鳴), Jhungli, Taoyuan General Hospital (桃園醫院), Jhungyuan (中原) and Pingjhen, Hu said.
Last year, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said during an inspection in Taoyuan that the central government would shoulder 75 percent of the construction costs, with the Taoyuan City Government covering the remaining costs.
While the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2030, operations would begin in two phases, Hu said.
The revamped railway stations would open in April 2029, while the new commuter stations would open in July 2030, he added.
Due to the long construction time, the Executive Yuan last year approved the bureau’s proposal to first build temporary stations at Fongming and Pingjhen — at a cost of about NT$1.1 billion — to meet urgent commuter demand and build ridership, Hu said.
Construction of the temporary station at Fongming, which began on Nov. 15 last year, is to be completed in 2024, while the one at Pingjhen is to be finished in 2026, he said.
In other news, the bureau said that an investigation into an accident at the Taiwan Railways Administration on Tuesday last week, in which two railway maintenance workers died and one was injured after being hit by a power maintenance train, is to begin today or tomorrow.
The rules covering the investigation of railway accidents require the bureau to automatically begin an investigation when there is a major derailment, a train crash or a fire in the railway system, Hu said.
An accident that falls outside of these categories must first be assigned to the bureau by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications before an investigation can begin, he added.
“Last week, we asked the ministry for its permission to begin an investigation and approval is expected in the next two days. We will start investigating as soon as this week if the ministry approves,” he said.
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