I was down again in Kaoshiung last week and saw some progress on the new light rail system. Everytime I visit the city has major improvements going on, new stylish buildings and bikeways, bike bridges, improved pavements etc.
It just doesn’t get the attention it deserves on here. Kaoshiung still has a lot of exciting developments in the works and it’s got so much potential being a true harbour city. Can’t wait to see this European style light rail system implemented in Taiwan with harbour views!
Here’s a couple of clips referring to their ‘new Asia bay’ project and the light rail system plans and concept.
yes kaohsiung and taichung are both working on exciting projects. both hired some pretty prominent foreign architects to work on some big projects like the new kaohsiung convention center, the cruise ship terminal (reiser + umemoto), pop music/performance center (i dont like that design - too overly complex!), the main library, Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts (mecanoo), in addition to kaohsiung world games stadium (toyo ito). taichung has toyo ito designing the new opera house under construction. i think both are surpassing taipei in terms of producing innovative architecture and overall urban planning. go to taiwan forums in below architectural links to check them out! btw, kaohsiung needs to expand their airport and truly make it an international airport to attract more tourism and business. it can be a really nice harbor city like singapore, vancouver or melbourne if only the govt. only invested in it and put in more effort to attract investments and cleaned up the industrial environment better and encourage the population to be more conscientious about building appearance and enforce maintenance and landscaping.
Kaohsiung has a lot of potential and has made great progress. Mainly due to the pollution and the general southern mentality it still has a long way to go. But it’s possible that in 15-20 years it might surpass Taipei for international business and as an attractive destination for expats.
Loving seeing the progress on the light rail, can’t wait to ride on it.
According to this it’s the world’s first completely wireless light rail system. Which is pretty fecking cool if you ask me. Instead of riding on a noisy mid 20th century polluting motor scooter, you can now travel star trek like on a super-capacitor charged silent wireless train. All yours to ride on for the absolute bargain of 30 NTD.
The problem is that if I want to go from Daliao (one end of Kaohsiung) to Dream mall for example, I have to pay $35 for the one way ride, and then another $30 for this light rail train. $130 round trip. A scooter would cost me less than $20 or so NT for a round trip (not factoring in wear and tear). Plus you need to wait for the trains and if you miss one like I did last week on the weekend at night, its a good 10-15 minute wait, by that time I could be home on my scooter.
Doubt this will take off unfortunately. Reduce the fares and I will definitely be interested.
I hear where you’re coming from, but there are a few other factors to consider. What if you’re a family of 4 or 5 taking a trip to the Dream Mall? The lightrail/MRT combo is definitely more appealing. For the elderly, people with children, or people like me who simply don’t like to drive, it’s very appealing.
The story of the music performance center and the surrounding area is peculiar: the winner of the design contest Kaohsiung city made was a young architect from Madrid and his studio, that also employed the help of a very well-known structural engineering firm from Barcelona. Another of the contenders was a Chinese architect firm who got, as one would put it, butthurt in losing against a young architect fresh from university and with no experience.
So this Chinese firm went on to Spain and basically bought the studio where this architect was employed. And they basically fired everyone but the architect who designed the buildings, and put their own people to work on it. They also decided to break their contract with the engineering firm (and also employ their own people).
I’m sure people will complain about poor execution, and that the Chinese firm will try by all means to get the architect who designed the project fired (even when keeping him was a sine qua non condition for executing the project).
It’s called a streetcar or tram system, not ‘light rail’. Expect lots of accidents as people don’t know that a tram can not just stop on command and that a tram has almost always priority because of this ‘flaw’.
Light rail is like the Wenhu line.
But yeah, it looks good and will probably improve daily commute in Gaoxiong.
[quote=“dan2006”]The problem is that if I want to go from Daliao (one end of Kaohsiung) to Dream mall for example, I have to pay $35 for the one way ride, and then another $30 for this light rail train. $130 round trip. A scooter would cost me less than $20 or so NT for a round trip (not factoring in wear and tear). Plus you need to wait for the trains and if you miss one like I did last week on the weekend at night, its a good 10-15 minute wait, by that time I could be home on my scooter.
Doubt this will take off unfortunately. Reduce the fares and I will definitely be interested.[/quote]
Where did you get your costs? Has it been said that the pricing won’t be integrated?
I live next to a new LRT station and I can’t wait for it to open. The biggest problem with the KMRT is that there aren’t enough lines. I am not walking 25-30 minutes (on lazy weekends I do this) nor am I riding my motorcycle to an MRT station and then taking the MRT. By having more lines they bring more people into the system.
I really don’t understand your pessimism. The LRT connects the Art Museum area to Pier 2 to the Love River to Dream Mall and that is only 30-40% of the route. These are either high population areas or high traffic (people) areas. Ridership for this is potentially very high.
Kaohsiungites: Remember that folding bicycles make fantastic last-mile solutions.
Let me take this opportunity to say that for all the negativity I and some others on this board may come up with, Taiwan’s rails are freaking amazing and I miss them like crazy.
I expect there will be an integrated ticketing solution. The
Route is awesome going around the harbour, it will be a big draw for tourists and residents.
Just as an aside, Taiwan is in the middle of significantly upgrading its rail system. They just bought more than 1,3000 rail cars to replace the Juguang and ziqiang hao.
They are raising or burying the rail lines in all the cities now which helps with speeds and safety and also redevelop those areas. EZcard now works on the trains. The train lines are almost all electrified. getting to Hualien and Taidong is hours faster IF you can get a ticket.
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]It’s called a streetcar or tram system, not ‘light rail’. Expect lots of accidents as people don’t know that a tram can not just stop on command and that a tram has almost always priority because of this ‘flaw’.
Light rail is like the Wenhu line.
But yeah, it looks good and will probably improve daily commute in Gaoxiong.[/quote]
Roighttt. You do know the translation of 高雄輕軌 yes?
In addition almost half of this new line is not on city streets and follows the bike paths (old train tracks). It might even be more than that since I haven’t checked out the eastern portion of the line. There are train tracks in that area also.
The story of the music performance center and the surrounding area is peculiar: the winner of the design contest Kaohsiung city made was a young architect from Madrid and his studio, that also employed the help of a very well-known structural engineering firm from Barcelona. Another of the contenders was a Chinese architect firm who got, as one would put it, butthurt in losing against a young architect fresh from university and with no experience.
So this Chinese firm went on to Spain and basically bought the studio where this architect was employed. And they basically fired everyone but the architect who designed the buildings, and put their own people to work on it. They also decided to break their contract with the engineering firm (and also employ their own people).
I’m sure people will complain about poor execution, and that the Chinese firm will try by all means to get the architect who designed the project fired (even when keeping him was a sine qua non condition for executing the project).[/quote]
It’s hard to work with bribes outside of the Chinese, Europeans might be too straight, maybe that was the consideration there. A lot of money involved.
i hope its implemented well. i think a tram basically needs to run like a more appealing bus. they always seem to work well in europe. there is one in shanghai near where i used to live, although it is kind of for commuting and too slow to really use practically unless it is really convenient to your work route.
