The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party’s (TPP) budget boycott would shutter railroad construction from April, potentially putting contractors out of business, the Railway Bureau said yesterday.
The legislature’s refusal to fund the government would likely affect construction originally budgeted for NT$31 billion (US$984.8 million) this year, bureau Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) told a news conference.
Underground lines in Taoyuan and Tainan, a dual-rail line linking Hualien and Taitung counties, and an elevated rail line in Chiayi City are among the projects expected to be affected, he said.
Photo: CNA
Should deadlock continue at the Legislative Yuan, the government would have to fund these programs with the remainder of the previous year’s NT$17.9 billion budget, which is not sufficient, Yang said.
Government contractors could endure missed paychecks in the short-term, but many would face bankruptcy if this funding situation persists, he said, calling on lawmakers to pass the budget.
Separately, Yang dismissed allegations that the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp has been negligent in conducting environmental impact assessments for high-speed rail extension projects in Yilan and Pingtung counties, saying that public criticism about the projects overlooked the legal process.
The government must evaluate environmental impact studies in the legally mandated order and certain data are not submitted because it is not yet their time, he said.
Asked whether the proposed high-speed rail projects meant the bureau had “given up” on the conventional rail operated by Taiwan Railway Corp, Yang said this concern was unfounded.
The daily ticket count of Taiwan Railway numbered 660,000 last year, up from 460,000 in 2007, when its high-speed rail counterpart launched its first trains, he said.
The conventional and high-speed rail systems are not in competition, but instead serve distinct and complementary functions, Yang said.
The bureau’s priority is public interest, he added.
The high-speed rail extension to Yilan is not at the expense of Taiwan Railway, and previous proposals to construct a direct rail link had been rejected, he said.
One proposed route that would have cut across part of the Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫) was rejected, as it posed unacceptable risk to water security and the environment, while Yilan residents rejected the other for not being a significant improvement to commute time, he said.
In addition, Taiwan Railway’s Nangang Station in New Taipei City cannot accommodate a direct train line to Yilan due to limited space, he said.
The bureau would need to acquire land in a densely populated urban area and bridge a 14m gap to make use of tunnels dug for the high-speed rail, both of which were deemed infeasible, Yang said.
Utilizing Taiwan Railway’s infrastructure to open a Taipei-Yilan link would strain the rail corridor between New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林) and Keelung’s Cidu District (七堵), instead of solving problems, he said.
The bureau believes that extending the high-speed rail line is the more efficient solution that would also facilitate regional growth and development, Yang said.
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