Raising the operating speed of the railway service connecting Hualien and Taitung counties to 160kph is unfeasible due to safety issues, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) said yesterday.
The ministry in the past advocated using the high-speed rail system as the core of the railway network on the west coast and using an express train system on the east coast.
The policy aimed to limit the operating time in each of the four railway sections to fewer than 90 minutes: Taipei to Kaohsiung’s Zuoying (左營), Zuoying to Taitung, Taitung to Hualien and Hualien to Taipei. That would make it possible to travel around Taiwan proper by railway in six hours.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The Chinese Nationalist Party caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) asked Chen in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee if the ministry intends to implement the policy, which had been proposed by former transportation ministers and premier.
“It was indeed our policy. However, after a thorough study, we found the policy to be unfeasible. The operating speed cannot be safely raised to 160kph,” Chen said.
The government should fulfill its pledge, Fu said.
The Railway Bureau said that it conducted the feasibility study for the eastern express railway project from September 2020 to May 2023.
“Although the project is technically feasible, after accounting for its overall economic and financial benefits, it turns out to be unfeasible,” the bureau said.
“Enforcing the project would involve upgrading the railway signaling system and eliminating railway crossings by building railway overpasses or initiating grade operation projects. We first need to undertake prudent evaluations,” the bureau said.
It said that it would instead focus on upgrading existing railway lines using heavy rail standards, optimizing the alignment of railway lines, and reinforcing railway bridges, steel railway tracks, power cables and other infrastructure.
Such improvement plans have already been incorporated into projects to electrify the railway line connecting Hualien and Taitung and building dual tracks on the line, the bureau said.
It is also studying the feasibility of realigning and building dual tracks on bottlenecks of the South Link Line (南迴線), it said.
The overall operating speed and passenger service capacity are expected to increase once these projects are completed, the bureau said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
RSS