Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) has finally announced that it is to postpone the commencement of its service by one year. This comes as no big surprise, but it does serve to show that the project is far from complete. I, for one, would prefer it if the company ensured that everything was in place before they start operating the service. After all, it is not the postponement that concerns us, it is the question of whether the system will live up to the claims the company has made regarding safety, speed and smooth operation.
The contract between the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and THSRC states that the company is allowed to operate the railway for 35 years, including the construction stage. Therefore this one-year extension will cut into THSRC's profits, shortening the period in which they can recoup their initial outlay by 12 months; it does not actually infringe upon their contractual obligations.
The high-speed rail project, which uses the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model, has already generated much debate over its costs. Nevertheless, the whole country will indisputably profit from the convenience and economic benefits that the railway will bring. Therefore, we should approach this delay rationally.
According to a survey conducted by the ministry, the biggest concerns regarding the high-speed rail are accessibility and safety. The stations in Taipei are to be accessible from the MRT system, as they will be in Taichung and Tsoying (左營) -- the terminal stop in Kaohsiung. Other stations, however, will be outside the city centers.
Naturally, ease of access will influence whether people decide to use the service, and the convenience of transferring from one mode of transport to the high-speed railway is a crucial factor. This will not only require the creation of a road network, it will also need transport companies to offer routes serving the railway's stations.
In addition, the coordination of flights and the high-speed railway should be considered. At the moment most people rely on Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport (CKS) in Taoyuan when they go abroad. If passengers from the south wish to travel to CKS on the high-speed railway, they will need to lug their luggage to the nearest station, many kilometers away from the city center, take the train to Chingpu (
One way we can prepare for the opening of the high-speed rail, then, is to adopt a passenger-oriented service mentality and develop a coordinated system.
The delay also gives the THSRC extra time to conduct tests on, and monitor, problems that arise from the operation of machinery and coordination systems, and to test and modify operational and safety procedures. Protocols for emergency response, maintenance of passenger cars and tracks, and compensation for late services are key to the sustained development of the high-speed rail.
The THSRC has to make sure everything is in place if it is to avoid a plethora of system failures and the resulting fallout -- as happened in the initial stages of France's high-speed rail. Any incidents resulting from system errors or safety lapses can only cause THSRC problems.
Finally, the company needs to avoid relying entirely on technology transfers from abroad and should use this period to consult local experts from industry, government and academia. In this way, the company will be able to stand on its own two feet and even export its knowledge of high-speed railway operations in the future.
Cheng Yung-hsiang is an assistant professor in the department of logistics management at National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology.
Translated by Paul Cooper
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS