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Apr 15, 2008

Bring home the bacon!

[Lawmakers yesterday] passed resolutions to extend the Taichung MRT route to Taiping (太平) and Dali (大里) of Taichung County and the Taichung Port and to stretch the Kaohsiung MRT route all the way to the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan County and to Pingtung County.

Two of the proposals were made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Lien-fu (江連福), who represents a district in Taichung, while another resolution was proposed by KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順), who represents a district in Kaohsiung.

Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒) said the ministry simply cannot afford to construct all the train routes proposed by the legislators....

He said on average, each kilometer of a MRT line costs approximately NT$4 billion. He said that the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA), the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp and freeway bus operators should be key transportation carriers between cities.

The ministry said it has budgeted NT$5 million this fiscal year for Taipei City’s Department of Rapid Transit Systems to evaluate the feasibility of extending the Airport Rail System to Sijhih (汐止) in Taipei City and Keelung.

The ministry also said the Airport Rail might not be able to launch on time, as contractors are unwilling to handle government projects due to rising prices of steel and other construction materials.

1 comment:

skiingkow said...

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With regards to Keelung -- we know people within the city council who told us that they have already done feasibility studies on the possibility of extending the MRT to Keelung. The verdict? Due to the current infrastructure and mountainous geography surrounding Keelung, it is pretty much insane to even think about the MRT project.

More hot air from the KMT.
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