Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has approved a plan to build a new line on the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit system, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said on Friday.
The new line is to run from Siaogang Station to Kaohsiung’s Linyuan District (林園), Lai said.
Construction might begin by the end of the year and the line could open as early as 2030, Lai added.
Photo courtesy of the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corp via CNA
Connecting the Red Line at its southern terminus, the “Siaogang-Linyuan Line” is to run underground until Linyuan 11th Park (林園11號公園) and overground for the rest of the line, he said.
It is to pass through 12 villages and serve 220,000 people, he said.
Lai said the government had been exploring the feasibility of the line for six years, and the plan was submitted to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for review in December 2020, four months after Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) took office.
The plan passed an environmental impact assessment in July and was reviewed by the National Development Council last month before being submitted to the Executive Yuan for approval.
The 11.59km line is to have six underground stations and one elevated station, the plan shows.
The project’s budget is NT$53.312 billion (US$1.68 billion), it shows.
Without a connection to Kaohsiung’s metropolitan railway system, Siaogang (小港) and Linyuan districts have been beset with industrial pollution and road safety problems, Lai said.
Extending the Red Line was a major part of his political platforms when he ran for legislator six years ago, he said.
After taking office, he coordinated with the ministry and the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Bureau to promote the project, Lai said.
The original plan for the new line was an elevated light rail, but the agencies involved opted for an underground solution, citing a light rail’s low economic efficiency, and safer and more convenient services offered by a line that runs for the most part underground, he said.
The line might be further extended to Pingtung County’s Donggang Township (東港) to promote development in the two cities, he added.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its