Taichung Metro

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Taichung Metro
Background
Locale Taichung, Republic of China (Taiwan)
Transit type Rapid transit
Number of lines 1
Operation
Began operation 2015~2018
Operator(s) Taichung Mass Rapid Transit System Co.
Taichung Metro
Traditional Chinese 台中捷運
Taichung MRT
Traditional Chinese 台中都會區大眾捷運系統

The Taichung Metro (officially Taichung Mass Rail Transit System) is a rapid transit system currently being constructed by the city government of Taichung, Taiwan (Republic of China). In addition to Taichung City, it may serve Changhua and Nantou counties.

Overview

The Wuri — Wenxin — Beitun Line (Green Line) is currently under construction as a grade-separated heavy rail line, with completion scheduled for 2018. The planned total cost for the project is NT$51.39 billion (including land acquisition costs), which is split between the local and central government.[1]

Furthermore, the TRA railway corridor in Taichung will be upgraded and local trains will be improved as to form a modern mass transit medium which covers part of the corridor for the formerly planned red line.

Finally, current mass transit planning in Taichung focuses on using Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes. However, no construction has begun in this area.

History

Planning of the Taichung MRT started in 1990 with a study conducted by the Taiwanese Bureau of Housing and Urban Development.[1] The study was completed in 1998 and suggested the implementation of three routes (Red, Green, and Blue). The project was formally approved by the Executive Yuan of the ROC government on November 23, 2004. The city government signed a joint development contract with the Taipei City Government on December 12, 2007.[2]

In the meanwhile, Taichung City Government started their own planning of more lines and decided that the much cheaper BRT system would be the future of mass transit in Taichung. Since the corridor of the originally proposed Red Line is partially served by the TRA mass transit construction, the Blue Line corridor was chosen as a first step to implement BRT in Taichung.

Construction of the first line, the Green Line, had been paid for and was expected to begin in October 2007, though it was pushed back and started construction on October 8, 2009.[3] The 16.7 km (10.4 mi) section of the Green Line is now scheduled for completion by 2015~2018 and will include 15 stations.[3][4]

On March 9, 2011, Kawasaki Heavy Industries announced that it had won a joint order with Alstom Transport SA (France) and CTCI Corp. (Taiwan) to supply 36 units consisting of two-car, driverless trains totaling 29.5 billion yen.[5] While Kawasaki will oversee construction, Alstom will focus on signaling and CTCI will supply the electrical system.[5]

List of transit lines across modes

LineModeTerminuskmTotal kmStatus
Green Wuri-Beitun Line elevated metro Jiushe－Xinwuri 16.7 26.9 Under construction to open in 2018
Changhua Extended Line Xinwuri－Changmei Road 10.2 Planned
Red conventional rail Fengyuan－Wuri 21.221.2 Under construction to open in 2014
Blue BRT Tunghai University－Dongping 1515 Planned
Orange BRT Zhongqing－Provincial Advisory Council 2525 Planned

MRT

The Wuri — Wenxin — Beitun Line (Green Line) is currently being constructed as an elevated railway with driverless electric trains. It will be about 16.5 km (10.3 mi) long. Original plans included 15 stations and a depot, but because of pressure from the Taichung City Government there are currently 18 stations planned. It will stretch from Songzhu Road in Beitun District of Taichung along Beitun Road, Wenxin Road, and Wenxin South Road to the High Speed Rail Station in the Wuri District.[6] It is expected to cost NT$53,491,000,000, and will be built by the Taipei City Department of Rapid Transit Systems.[7]

BRT

Taichung City Government cites LRT being five times cheaper to built than MRT, and BRT in turn being five times cheaper than LRT. For this reason, the first MRT line in Taichung is being built as an elevated line (as opposed to underground), and future lines are planned to be build as BRT with the possibility of later upgrading to grade-separated modes of transit.

While the Blue Line (along the central and very busy Taichung Harbor road) has been designated as prototype BRT corridor, the project is still delayed by the fact that articulated buses are currently still forbidden to run on Taiwanese roads. Taichung city government is currently lobbying the Ministry of Traffic for the necessary legal changes needed for the project to proceed.

While the City Government has published Maps showing a comprehensive network of BRT lines which integrate with the two rail transit lines, only the blue line has published detail plans with construction to begin in 2012 the system being operational as soon as 2013.

TRA mass transit

As part of the improvement of the Western Line the Taiwan Railway Administration is currently replacing the entire railway between Fengyuan and Daqing (including all track in Taichung City) with an elevated railroad. In the course of this project, more stops for local trains are created.

On the resulting infrastructure, new EMUs will be run more frequently than before, yielding a service that supplements mass transit for the greater Taichung area.

Station name pre-2014 new elevated railway remarks
Xinwuri Station (新烏日車站) (new station) 2 island platforms (ground level) Exchange with Taiwan HSR Taichung Station. Opened 2006 already.
Wuri Station (烏日車站) 1 island platform (no change)
Daqing Station (大慶車站) 2 side platforms 2 side platforms Exchange with Green Line MRT.
Wuchuan Station (五權車站) (new station) 2 side platforms
Taichung Station (台中車站) 1 island and 1 side platforms 2 island and 1 side platform Old station will be kept as landmark and cultural site. Proposed exchange with Blue and Orange Line BRT.
Jingwu Station (精武車站) (new station) 2 side platforms
Taiyuan Station (太原車站) 2 side platforms 2 island platforms
Songzhu Station (松竹車站) (new station) 2 side platforms Exchange with Green Line MRT.
Toujiacuo Station (頭家厝車站) (new station) 2 side platforms
Tanzi Station (潭子車站) ?? island / side platform 2 island platforms
Fengnan Station (豐南車站) (new station) 2 side platforms
Fengyuan Station (豐原車站) 2 island platforms 2 island platforms Prepared to later add a third island platform.

Source of the preceding table includes sketches of future stations.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Taichung Metropolitan MRT System Wuri-Wenxin-Beitun Line Construction Project". Department of High Speed Rail, MOTC. Retrieved 2011-01-06. 
  2. ↑ "Taipei and Taichung signed a contract for the cooperation of the Taichung MRT development project(2007-12-12)". Taichung City Government. 2007-12-12. Retrieved 2011-01-19. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Taichung MRT System Breaks Ground". China Economics News Service. 2008-10-08. Retrieved 2011-01-19. 
  4. ↑ "台中市第一條捷運 明年動工". Liberty Times. 2008-11-16. Retrieved 2011-01-19. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Kawasaki Heavy, Others Snag Taiwan Order For Train System". Nikkei. 2011-03-10. Retrieved 2011-03-09. 
  6. ↑ "Taipei, Taichung City & the Department of Transportation jump start the Taichung MRT". Compass Magazine. December 2008. Retrieved 2011-01-19. 
  7. ↑ "臺中都會區捷運系統－ 烏日文心北屯線暨場、站聯合開發.". Department of Rapid Transit Systems. 2008-11-01. Retrieved 2010-06-19. 

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