The completion of the Shanli Tunnel (山里隧道), scheduled for the end of this year, will pave the way for electrification of the entire Eastern Line and direct trains all the way to Taitung, the Railway Reconstruction Bureau said yesterday.
The 5.3km tunnel between Hualien and Taitung is the longest on the modified route.
At present, passengers traveling from Taipei to Taitung must switch to a diesel-powered train at Hualien halfway through their journey.
Photo: Wang Hsiu-ting, Taipei Times
The bureau hosted a ceremony yesterday celebrating the completion of the tunnel drilling. Workers operating an excavator broke through the rock separating the north and south ends of the tunnel.
Bureau Director-General Jack Hsu (許俊逸) said construction of the tunnel was initially scheduled to be completed by June next year.
Completion ahead of schedule was even more remarkable as construction was interrupted six times in its initial stage because of typhoons and heavy rain, the bureau said.
However, with the drilling completed, workers can now begin laying the tracks and installing the electrical equipment, which could be completed by the end of this year, Hsu said.
“The Shanli Tunnel is the most crucial part of the project [to electrify the Hualien-Taitung line],” Hsu said, adding that the drilling took about two years.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said the ministry was confident the 155km-long electrified Hualien-Taitung line would become operational next year, adding that the new route would reduce the travel time from Taipei to Taitung to about three-and-a-half hours from about five-and-a-half hours.
The ministry’s next project is the South-Link Line connecting Taitung with Greater Kaohsiung, which has yet to be electrified, Mao said.
Work on the project could begin next year, he said.
Mao said the bureau had also started planning the construction of a direct railway route between Taipei and Yilan, which would depart from Nangang Railway Station in Taipei and go to Jiaosi Township (礁溪), Yilan County.
“If the Taipei-Yilan direct line is complete, it could further decrease travel time between Taipei and Taitung to three hours if the train only stops in Yilan and Hualien,” he said. “And when the South-Link Line is electrified, people from the West Coast will be able to take the high-speed rail and switch to the South-Link Line to travel to Taitung, which would also take about three hours. So whether you went along the east coast or the west coast, it would only take about three hours to arrive in Taitung.”
Despite improvements in the railway service, Mao said the ministry still needed to address several issues before it could truly improve transportation along the east coast.
“We need to consider how to properly increase train services during holidays, particularly when there are large events, like the [Taiwan International] Hot Air Balloon Festival [in Taitung County],” he said. “With an increase in train services, we might run short of train carriages and conductors as well.”
Mao suggested that airlines could have additional flights during peak periods.
Apart from the Shanli Tunnel, the Hualien-Taitung line has three further constructionally challenging tunnels on its modified route, including the Guangfu (光復), Zihciang (自強) and Sikou (溪口) tunnels.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RSS