Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) celebrated the arrival of its first batch of bullet trains at Kaohsiung Port yesterday.
"We're so excited about the coming of Taiwan's first high-speed trains, and we are confident that we can begin service as scheduled," THSRC chairwoman Nita Ing (殷琪) said during a ceremony at the port yesterday.
Two 700-T locomotives and 10 carriages arrived Monday night, with a combined length of 304m and combined weight of 503 tonnes. The units left Kobe, Japan, on May 18.
PHOTO: JESSIE HO, TAIPEI TIMES
The company has ordered 30 sets of bullet trains from Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries.
The second batch of trains is expected to arrive in July, and the remaining 28 sets are expected by September next year, THSRC spokesman Edward Lin (
THSRC will showcase one locomotive in the Hsiaokang District of Kaohsiung City tonight and transport the carriages to its main workshop in Yenchao township, Kaohsiung County, to be assembled on Saturday.
THSRC plans to start a yearlong trial in September on 60km of track between Tainan and Kaohsiung.
If the test goes smoothly, the white bullet trains with orange stripes will begin service between Taipei and Kaohsiung at the end of October next year and will boast speeds of up to 300kph.
Travel time between the two cities would be 90 minutes, while the Taipei-Taichung route would take 46 minutes.
While the 345km line is 60 percent complete and the main infrastructure 99 percent finished, there are concerns about whether the company has enough capital to finish the NT$513 billion railway.
Last year THSRC initiated a NT$21.7 billion fundraising plan, which would sell preferred shares with a guaranteed 9.5 percent dividend for the first two years. Ing said earlier this month that the company had raised only NT$2.9 billion.
Given the lukewarm response, the company is considering opening up the share sale to overseas investors, Ing said yesterday.
THSRC plans to raise NT$7.5 billion by July, NT$10.2 billion by September, and another NT$10 billion by November.
China Steel Corp (
"This is a good investment ... the risk of the investment dwindles with the completion of the project," China Steel chairman Lin Wen-yuan (
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