Nice article about the proposed MRT and BRT systems coming to Taichung over the next few years:
[quote]By the end of the decade Taichung is going to be a very different city. The iconic Taiwan Tower should be finished, the Metropolitan Opera House will be hosting international acts, the Taichung Gateway Project will completely change the large tract of land that used to be the Shuinan Airport and more and more skyscrapers will dot the landscape.
Most those changes will be more about how the city looks and less about how people go about their lives. By 2018, however, a parallel revolution will change how many move about the city.
The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Green Line is expected to be finished at the end of 2017, and was slated to run from the High Speed Rail station in Wuri to Dakeng, but plans have recently been announced to extend the line into Changhua city. Much of the line will run along WenXin Road and will be elevated, making it five times cheaper than running it underground. Architect renderings of the stations suggest they will be quite attractive.
…
So, if all goes according to plan, in 2018 someone could board an MRT in Taipei or Kaohsiung, transfer to the High Speed Rail, then continue on to the Taichung MRT, a gondola, a narrow-gauge train, another gondola and end up at the top of Daxue Mountain in the very center of the country. The tourism prospects are enormous.[/quote]
That’s all speculation. I can point you to any number of articles that talk about plans all over Taiwan. The government even likes to announce the completion of projects that have barely begun.Or they announce something will take 3 years and be ready in 2012 (such as the round the island bike lanes or the refurbishing of train stations on the east coast). Then in 2012 they will suddenly announce that they are starting serious work on the project and it will be ready in 5 years.
I can’t recall how many times I have read that the government is serious about sewage development across Taiwan. Strange how the percentages barely rise despite massive flows of cash which are supposed to increase connectivity 2-3 percent a year.
If they say the end of the decade expect that is when they will begin this work in earnest.
The plans for the red and green line are approved, everything else including how long it will take to complete those two lines is complete speculation. Taichung city government has the worst efficiency of all the big city governments in Taiwan. It’s a shame because of all the cities it would be easiest to construct an integrated mass rapid transport system in Taichung. The bus proposal is not bad for a city with relatively wide roads like Taichung. If they used natural gas or electricity it would help too.
Good point. Some of the work is underway though - there was work being done on Wen Xin roads and on Jian Guo N roads. So hopefully that leads to something useful.
OK, the pictures below are just for the enjoyment of the “few sickos and bus fanatics” out there (you know yourself who you are… you, you, you… fanatical sickos!):
The BRT that started it all way back in 1974 in Curitiba, Brazil; designed and implemented by then mayor, Jaime Lerner, now an architecture and urban planning guru.
