I was talking with a friend this morning and we got on the subject of the Taiwan High Speed Rail completion date.
He mentioned that the latest proposed time is Oct '05.
Then he said something about mis-matched technology being a major hold-up. French-Japanese mis-match, something like that?
I am very hopeful to see the inaguration of this service; living as I do down in the sw corner of the island.
Any info from Forumosa members about this project?
(A tip of the hat to Taverncaptain for jogging my memory)
Yep, October 2005 is the PROPOSED launch time. Heck, they’ve been having articles about it, including approximate ticket prices etc for MONTHS in the papers.
Personally, I’ve been here long enough (ie. more than 6 weeks) to know that deadlines don’t mean squat. It’ll happen when it happens.
Example 1: I’ve seen buildings that have taken years to build here (and we’re talking regular 8 - 12 storey buildings, not skyscrapers), such as the library for which Zhong He Park no. 4 was destroyed, which took about 3 years to build, or the building across from my old school which was being built when I first arrived in early 2000 and was not finished when I left in August 2002.
Example 2: Sloppy, 差不多 building standards on the western extension of the TPE MRT system. Result: Sanchong by the sea, the new Venice of the East, and probably an extra 6 months or more added to the construction time of a line that, as it was, was only due to open in about 2009.
If the High speed rail opens at all this year, it will be an incredible achievement. If it opens on schedule, it will be worthy of the highest praise.
They haven’t even hung up the power lines feeding the train yet in at least 2 places - most likely more - so the infrastructure is NOT ready yet - 60 days before it’s supposed to open.
One would imagine that they would need to test the whole system for some time before passenger traffic would start - they are not there yet.
So alone for that reason I would say that we are looking at a delay og at least a few months.
I was speaking to somebody at Carnegies, near Taipei Sports Bar but quite far away from The Shannon (well, couldn’t be biased) who is an engineer on the High speed, slow construction railway.
He said that it will probably be sometime next year when the railway gets completed.
His contract has been extended for another year in Taiwan.
There is a technology mix up. It was a European venture originally, but after the contract was signed and construction initiated, Japan bought the contract “under the table,” resulting in extra costs, mix ups, buffoonery, clowning around and general Taiwanishness.
They were testing trains in Kaohsiung last week though, and I must say they look pretty snazzy.
A Belgian guy who’s here doing final phase alignment testing on the track said that usually they can complete between 20km and 50km per week… He says that since the construction was so poor, they are getting 1km to 2km per week finished…
My mole tells me that the crucial issue is poor comprehension by the workers on the track, for example Mr Betel Nut and Epsilon Semi-Moron gang trying to join electrical cables female to female despite repeated instructions to join them male to female, blatant construction errors pointed out and repaired with the same error etc. etc.
There was an article in Taipei Times that said the Oct 31 date probably won’t be met due to incompatibility between the Japanese and the European parts. They said there will be a delay, the only question is how long. Nothing official has been announced yet.
Just yesterday I heard on ICRT that the deadline ‘will be met…’
Apparantly the first test run is bound to take place ‘soon’ and it will be between Kaoshiung and Taipei at 120km/hr. Speed will be upped to 200+km/hr in subsequent test runs.
many of my students’s school teachers are warning them not to go anywhere near this train for more than a year after it finally does get up and running. they all seem to have the same concerns - that it was supposed to be ready for oct., so it will be, come hell or highwater.
could be fear of something new, but from all the reports i’ve heard/read about delays recently, you gotta wonder how they could possibly get it done on time now …
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]Note to Mods -
Could this qualify as a “sticky” to watch the progress of this puppy until its up & running?
Thanks.[/quote]
Done.
sounds like it will be at least another year. The taiwanese government is notorious for taking a lot of money and time to do anything. Besides who would want to ride it anyways? It cost so much you might as well fly…
According to the Taipei Times today, it’s on schedule.
“The transport ministry has asked us to announce the date of the launch of the high-speed rail by mid-September. Our goal is to launch it at the end of October as scheduled,” he [Ted Chia (賈先德), assistant vice president of the press office of the Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp] said.
Chia said construction is ahead of schedule.
“Construction of the rail and stations has been completed 95 percent, but the core system is a little behind schedule,” he said.
The 345km railway will link Taipei and Kaohsiung. It had been scheduled to start running on Dec. 31.
Funnily enough, I met a couple of guys working on it in a bar as well (sounds like a good job – no wonder it could get behind schedule). Although they aren’t exactly allowed to be forthright on the topic, the answers and body language (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) they offered were hardly those that would inspire confidence that it would be finished on time. Guess I’m saying maybe yes, maybe no.
