The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) could soon choose the site for the terminal station of the high-speed rail (HSR) extension line to Yilan County, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said.
Wang was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting at the legislature’s Transportation Committee on Thursday.
A consulting firm hired by the ministry recommended that the HSR line be extended to either the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) Yilan, Luodong or Sicheng stations, or to a yet-to-be built station near the Yilan County Hall.
At an information session on Wednesday, the ministry suggested a fifth possible location in Yilan City, which is 350m south of the Yilan County Hall, Wang said.
Participants at the session were more receptive to the fifth location, which would still involve some isolated home relocations, he said.
“We still need to communicate with only a few towns in Yilan that are against the proposal. Our consulting firm would still need to conduct a more detailed assessment on the fifth location,” Wang said.
“After the terminal station in Yilan is determined, the entire extension line project would still need to be reviewed by the environmental impact assessment [EIA] committee at the Environmental Protection Administration,” he said, adding that the station’s location would not be finalized until after the EIA committee has approved the project.
The fourth and fifth options would both have the terminal station built near the Yilan County Hall.
Asked about the differences between the two, Wang said that the fourth option would have the new HSR station built to the north of the county hall, with the rail line traveling through downtown Yilan.
The fifth option would position the station to the south of the hall, and the rail line would bypass downtown Yilan, he said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ou-po (陳歐珀), who represents districts in Yilan County, said the fifth option meets the expectations of a majority of Yilan residents, who want the HSR station to be in downtown Yilan, but do not want the project to interfere with construction for the Yilan Railway Overpass at Yilan Station.
Most Yilan residents do not want to lose more farmland to construction, Chen added.
If the HSR station is built at the south of the Yilan County Hall, the ministry would only need to expropriate 190 hectares of private property, he said.
“The high-speed rail extension line would be built within the TRA’s second station in Yilan, but they would operate on different routes. The height of the station would be lowered to 17m, from 32m if it were to be built at the Yilan Station. We would also hope that the noise and disruptions caused by the construction would be minimized,” Chen said.
The ministry should make the final decision at the end of this year, and compensate the families whose homes need to be relocated, he added.
Under the fifth option, the HSR extension line would be 59.3km long, and would cost more than NT$188 billion (US$6.76 billion) to build, ministry officials said.
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