Acting Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) yesterday said that his top priority would be to deal with the challenges facing the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) following a deadly derailment of a Puyuma Express train on Oct. 21.
Wang yesterday officially became the acting minister following the resignation of former minister of transportation and communications Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) on Saturday last week.
Wu, who was in office for 141 days, is one of three Cabinet members whose resignations were approved by Premier William Lai (賴清德) after the Democratic Progressive Party suffered major losses in Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections.
In his final interview with the media as minister, Wu said that his next move would be to take a break and reflect on his shortcomings.
As the ministry’s employees bid him farewell with a round of applause, Wu bowed and encouraged them to press on and not let the public down.
Regarding the issues facing the TRA, Wang said that the agency has been in operation for 130 years and would soon undergo an organizational overhaul.
In the meantime, the agency would have to improve the maintenance of its facilities, he said.
The agency’s operational safety committee would be transformed into the operational safety department, a move that aims to regain the public’s trust in the agency, Wang said.
Half of the budget allocated from the Executive Yuan’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program would be used to improve the agency’s operational efficiency, he said.
It is critical that the agency make good use of the funding by itemizing problematic equipment, from pantographs, cables and railway tracks to automatic train protection systems and air compressors, he added.
Several mayors and county commissioners have begun reassessing the projects listed in the development program that are within their jurisdictions, Wang said, adding that construction projects must meet the needs and demands of local residents and that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications is optimistic about the implementation of the program.
Asked about the family members of the derailment’s victims who have expressed dissatisfaction, particularly about the compensation offered by the agency, Wang said that they want to know the reason behind the derailment.
The agency would compensate the families based on precedent, he said.
Calling himself an “errand boy,” Wang said that as acting minister he would make sure that work at the ministry continues as it was, adding that the ministry has much more qualified individuals to assume the post of minister.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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