Traveling around Taiwan in six hours will be possible in the future thanks to extensions to the island’s only high-speed rail line and the introduction of faster trains on other lines, according to a Ministry of Transportation blueprint.
The government recently gave the go-ahead to extend the Taipei-to-Kaohsiung high-speed rail track further south to Pingtung, while north a line between Taipei City and Yilan County is also under consideration.
While having high speed trains careening along the mountainous and sparsely populated east coast might be technically and commercially less viable, introducing faster services based on the current Puyuma and Taroko Express trains would also help with the project, CNA reported Friday (Jan. 3).
Central Taiwan would see its single track close to the coast turned into a double track to resolve current bottlenecks.
Transportation Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) wanted to use the plan to promote the balanced development of the country’s various regions and increase the effectiveness of its transportation network, according to the report.
The plan would see travel times between Taipei and Hualien in the north and Kaohsiung and Taitung in the south shrink to less than 90 minutes. Under this scenario, it would be possible to travel from Taipei to Taitung in two hours and 20 minutes, including 23 minutes on the high-speed train from the capital to Yilan, 47 minutes from Yilan to Hualien and one hour and 10 minutes from Hualien to Taitung, the CNA report said.
The ministry reportedly only still has to finetune the details before submitting the plan to the Cabinet for approval.
Source：Taiwan News
