The government is in less than 18 months to decide on a terminal station of a planned high-speed rail (HSR) extension to Yilan County, as it assesses all proposed routes for the line, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said yesterday.
Wang made the remarks at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee, which asked him to brief legislators on the ministry’s progress on the project.
CECI Engineering Consultants, which the ministry contracted to perform a comprehensive assessment on the extension, recommended four possible sites for the terminal station: Yilan Station, Luodong Station (羅東), Sicheng Station (四城) or a new station near Yilan County Hall.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that there are two additional proposed routes.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus at the Yilan County Council suggested that a new station be built in downtown Yilan, while the ministry proposed a station be built at a site south of Yilan County Hall, the newspaper said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said that Wang did not mention the two additional sites in his briefing.
After CECI published an assessment in May, the ministry said it preferred the terminal station to be at Yilan Station, but changed its preference to Sicheng Station in August, Hung said.
“Now you are telling everyone that there are fifth and sixth options. Are you playing a city-building video game or Monopoly?” Hung said.
The ministry pivoted to Sicheng Station because it realized that the route to Yilan Station would overlap with a planned Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) overpass, Hung said, adding that CECI should have worked with the consulting firm planning the line.
Wang said the ministry would still consider the four terminal stations recommended by CECI, as they were carefully reviewed by the firm.
“The two other options were brought up while we were communicating with local residents in Yilan, but they have not yet been thoroughly assessed by the consulting firm,” he said, adding that the ministry would assess all proposed routes.
Wang said he met with Legislative Yuan Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) on Wednesday and briefed him about the project as well.
You, who grew up in Yilan, said that all of the options were viable except the one for Sicheng Station, Wang said.
Wang said that he would not insist the terminal station be in Sicheng.
The Railway Bureau was unaware that the overpass route would overlap with the high-speed rail extension until July when the Yilan County Government submitted its plan based on an assessment by Sinotech Engineering Consultants, he said.
The consulting firms are working with the bureau to integrate the projects, he added.
As the Railway Bureau said it would take about 18 months to complete the comprehensive plan for the TRA line, Hung asked if it would take the same amount of time to determine the extension’s terminal station.
“The decision for the terminal station will be finalized once Yilan residents reach a consensus on the issue. The chosen location must also be deemed feasible by professionals. The process should take less than 18 months,” he said.
DPP Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀), who represents districts in Yilan, said that a majority of residents support building the station in downtown Yilan, rather than in Sicheng or Luodong.
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