Taiwan High-Speed Line On Course To Open In 2005 - High Speed: Far East

International Railway Journal, Oct, 2002 by David Briainshaw

Taiwan's 345km high-speed line is now taking shape. It will run along the west coast of the island state connecting Taipei with Kaohsiung. When it opens in late 2005, 300km/h 12-car trains will operate at average headways of between nine and 10 minutes.

TAIWAN's new high-speed railway will revolutionise rail travel along the country's western seaboard where the majority of the country's 22 million people live. An end-to-end journey time of lh 30mm is planned with one intermediate stop for each trip. By comparison, the shortest time today by Taiwan Railway Administration's (TRA) fastest 1067mm-gauge trains is 3h 50mm, with the majority of the services taking longer.

The project is being implemented by the Taiwan High Speed Railway Corporation (THSRC) under a 35-year design, build, and operate concession which was signed in 1998. THSRC secured a credit of $NT 323 billion ($US 9.8 billion) from a syndicate of banks in February 2000. At the same time the government entered into a tripartite agreement with THSRC and the lending banks under which the government would buy back the project in certain circumstances.

Taiwan suffered a major earthquake on September 21 1999, which delayed the award of the THSRC civil works contracts by several months. Additionally, the earthquake resulted in a revision to the earthquake zoning levels affecting the civil contracts. However, the need to comply with revised zoning was subsequently withdrawn subject only to THSRC demonstrating prior to commencement the adequacy of its more stringent seismic design criteria. Although some time was lost in the design phase, the delays are expected to be made up during the construction phase, as a number of recovery measures have been agreed and adopted.

All major civil works contracts were awarded between January and May 2000. A Japanese consortium of Kawasaki, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Marubeni, and Mitsui Electrical won the mechanical core system supply and installation contracts in December 2000. This was after a stiff fight with the Eurotrain consortium, which included Alstom and Siemens, who had been members of the original Taiwan High Speed Rail Consortium from which THSRC was formed. Construction started in early 2001.

THSRC has awarded the first track contracts. A Japanese consortium of Mitsui, Marubeni, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Toshiba, has won contracts worth $US 896 million for trackwork on the 176km southern part of the new line. A joint venture of Leighton Asia, Barclay Mowlem, Hsin Lung, Heitkamp, and Fu Tsu has won a contract worth $US 101 million for 16km of double track at the northern end of the line.

Track laying is scheduled to start on the main line at the southern end in May next year. It is planned to complete a 60km test section by late summer 2004. The test section will be used to prove all systems including bi-directional operation. The first train is due to arrive in Taiwan from Japan in mid-2004. Dynamic testing will begin in late 2004 and trial running should commence in mid-2005.

The first 14km section from Taipei is underground and was built by the Taipei Railway Underground Project Office (Trupo). It consists of a twin-box tunnel with narrow-gauge tracks for existing TRA services and standard-gauge tracks for the future high-speed trains. The maximum operating speed in this section will be less than 160km/h.

THSRC will take over four of the existing eight underground platform tracks at Taipei's existing main station. THSRC will also occupy part of the new underground station built by Trupo at Panchiao in the western suburbs of Taipei. Connections with the Taipei Rapid Transit System will be provided at both Taipei main and Panchiao stations.

South of Taipei, the high-speed line will have five intermediate stations initially. They will be at Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, and Tainan. All will have two through tracks for non-stop trains. Taichung will have four platform tracks, whereas the other stations will have only two. Taoyuan will be underground, whereas the other four will be elevated. Most stations will be fairly remote from the cities they serve so they will have large car parks. Rapid transit systems are planned in all five cities to serve the high-speed stations. Most stations will have room for property development.

Three more elevated intermediate stations, at Miaoli, Changhua, and Yunlin, are planned. The platform loop tracks will be installed now in readiness for construction of the platforms and station facilities at a later date.

Station construction contracts were awarded between June and August this year for Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, and Tsoying.

The new line will terminate at Tsoying, which is about 10km north of Kaohsiung. Passengers will have to transfer to TRA, metro, or other services to reach the city centre. The station will have six at-grade platform tracks and will share the concourse with a relocated TRA station. There is a plan to build a new underground line from Tsoying to Kaohsiung, which would have separate tracks for TRA and high-speed trains.