The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) is scheduled to start work on the electrification of the railway line between Hualien and Taitung next month.
The electrification of the Hualien-Taitung railway service was one of the 12 “I-Taiwan” projects (愛台十二項建設) promised by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during his presidential electoral campaign.
The work is scheduled to be completed by 2013.
TRAVEL TIME
Chou Yung-hui (周永暉), deputy director general of the Railway Reconstruction Bureau, said yesterday that it takes about two hours and 40 minutes to go from Hualien to Taitung. Once the electrification work is complete, travel time will be reduced by about 30 minutes.
“In the future, passengers will be able to go straight from Taipei to Taitung without having to change trains in Hualien,” Chou said. “The travel time can potentially be shortened to four hours. The operational speed will be increased from 110kph to 130kph.”
Currently, passengers going from Taipei to Taitung need to switch to diesel-powered trains in Hualien, with the exception of those travelling by diesel-powered Tzuchiang express trains.
The Hualien-Taitung route uses a single-track system and Chou said the project would also involve the installation of a double-track system on some sections, including those inside tunnels and on bridges.
STRETCH
The project covers a 155km stretch of railway. When it is finished, about 42km of this will be double-tracked.
Chou said the bureau had submitted a plan to make the entire route double-track, which had yet to be approved by the Executive Yuan.
The bureau originally planned to spend seven years on the project, but it would now try to accomplish the task within four years.
The cost is estimated to top NT$15.5 billion (US$480,000) and the bureau has also budgeted an additional NT$6 billion to renovate stations on the route.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS