Minister Without Portfolio Wu Tze-cheng (吳澤成) on Tuesday announced that an old forestry railway on Taiping Mountain (太平山) in Yilan County is to recommence operations after 40 years.
The railway was built to transport people and wood from felled Taiwan cypress trees. The line runs 37km between Datong (大同) and Luodong (羅東) townships and began operations in 1924.
Typhoon Della severely damaged the railway in 1978 and it shut down in 1979 due to declining ridership.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The railway has significant historical and tourism value, as it was part of the heyday of railway transportation and its decline, Wu said.
Attempts to relaunch the railway when he was Yilan commissioner failed, as there was no central government agency overseeing such efforts, he said.
As a minister without portfolio, Wu said he is in a unique position to facilitate collaborations between the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, the Council of Agriculture and others.
A consensus was reached at a cross-departmental meeting that the railway has historical value, Wu said.
As Yilan County has over the years applied to restore sections, the decision was made to reopen the entire line to prevent a lack of overall planning leading to a waste of resources, he said.
The county government is to submit a proposal by late next year, Wu said.
Japan’s Enoshima Electric Railway is to be consulted over merging a railway and a light-rail system, as regulations prohibit shared railway-road paths, Wu said, adding that the county government would also propose legislative amendments or drafts to facilitate the plans.
The estimated cost of the project is NT$8 million (US$254,437), with the ministry contributing 86 percent and the county shouldering the rest, he said.
While the line should follow the existing track as much as possible, alternative routes could be considered should there be difficulties, the ministry said.
The project could be separated into two construction phases, with the first focused on the section between the Jhulin (竹林) area in Luodong and Tiansongbei (天送碑) Station in Sansing Township (三星), and the second phase from Tiansongbei to the Tuyang (土揚) area.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
RSS