Transportation

Introduction

The three main candidates in the 2022 Taipei mayoral elections are Huang Shan Shan as an Independent, Chen Shih-Chung for the Democratic Progressive Party, and Chiang Wan-an from the Kuomintang. The candidates covered a range of topics in their debates, one of the central topics being public transportation in Taipei. As Taipei continues to industrialize and modernize, there is an increasing amount of traffic and thus an increasing need to expand the existing infrastructure of transportation in Taipei. This article will dive into the policy positions of the three main candidates of the Taipei mayoral election in regard to transportation.

Background

The Taipei MRT, also known as Mass Rapid Transit, operates in Taipei and the surrounding city of New Taipei. This includes six underground and viaduct lines, including one fully automated line, and no less than 131 stations. It was one of the costliest transportation systems ever built, with the first phase of the project alone costing $18 billion. Completed in 1996, the construction of the metro allowed a reorganization of the city and also facilitated tourism, which made it possible to place Taipei among the great world metropolises. It now transports roughly 2.1 million passengers per day.

In terms of funding, The Taipei Metro is funded by the central government, Taipei City Government, and New Taipei City Government exclusively with no private sectors involved at present. According to the "Mass Rapid Transit Act", investors from the private sector shall self-finance the required funds for the civil construction in question if they want to participate. The construction of the MRT System is based on a financial plan that was approved by the Executive Yuan, then submitted to local authorities. In practice, both Central government and Local government are involved, according to the areas that the routes pass through. This collaboration is also seen in the shared costs that are also determined after the construction planning.

The construction costs, not including acquisition costs, are then shared by local and central governments at all levels, set in accordance with the results of prior calculations using, for instance, self-liquidity ratios and Zero-based budgeting. The project resulted in a total cost of $18 billion. Another aspect in the structure of the metro system is the City Traffic Engineering Office which was established in 1988 as planner and primary overseer of transportation planning, management of road traffic, tourism and travel. Its goals are to provide safe, accessible, reliable and efficient transportation across the whole city.

According to the existing structure of the Taipei Metro system, any plans presented by the three candidates would require cooperation from local governments.

Neihu Traffic Issue

The Neihu traffic area has proved an issue for traffic congestion for the past years as employment has grown in the area. The Neihu Technology Park alone has significantly increased the amount of traffic going in and out of the area as the number of employees in the area has increased threefold since 2000, with a total of 180,000 employees in the area. Current efforts to resolve the issue include smart traffic development, projects to widen the roads, and projects to add more lanes on the freeway.

All three candidates have talked extensively about their proposed solutions to the Neihu traffic congestion. Huang, Chen, and Chiang proposed plans that relate to completing the MRT Circular line, planning the MRT Minsheng-Xizhi line, and increasing frequency or shuttle buses and creations of underpasses to relieve some of the traffic in Neihu, like that of the Sun Yat-sen Freeway.

Solutions

MRT Circular Line

Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT), branded as Metro Taipei, is a rapid transit system serving the areas of Taipei and New Taipei in Taiwan, operated by the government-owned Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation. The MRT Circular Line is a circular rail transportation system designed to shorten the MRT's travel distance and disperse the traffic volume. It can be divided into four sections: Western section, Southern section, Northern section and Eastern section. The western line consists of the section from Dapinglin to New Taipei Industrial Park, and this initial section was opened on 31 January 2020. The rest of the section has not yet been opened. The MRT Circular Line, which covers all MRT routes in the Taipei metropolitan area, will effectively improve the accessibility and mobility of MRT systems.[1]

Due to the unstable transportation facilities for crossing the river from Neihu to Songshan/Xinyi, the completion of the east section of the Taipei MRT Circular Line linking Neihu and Xinyi is considered a major issue to solve traffic problems. However, since the actual date of construction has not yet been set, the three candidates are proposing the completion of the east section of the Taipei MRT Circular Line as a way to improve traffic in Neihu. Candidate Chen claimed that the opening of the MRT Circular line is of paramount importance to improve the traffic situation in Neihu, which is suffering from severe traffic delays and lack of transportation, and announced that the development will begin with the aim of completing the east section of the Taipei MRT Circular Line within eight years. Candidate Chiang also stressed the importance of implementing fast and practical policies to solve Neihu's traffic problems and promised to promote the construction of the east section of the Taipei MRT Circular Line within his term. Also, Candidate Huang said she aims to complete the MRT Circular Line in the capital by 2030. All three candidates agree on the necessity of completing the MRT Circular Line as soon as possible, but as we can see, there are slight variations in the timelines that they have suggested that they would be able to finish construction by.[2]

MRT Minsheng-Xizhi Line

A feasibility study of the Minsheng-Xizhi line was approved by the Executive Yuan in December 2011. The line is to be built partly underground and will be partly elevated. It will start from Dadaocheng Wharf beneath Minsheng West Road in Taipei City, then run along Minsheng West and East roads, pass through Minsheng Community, and extend beneath the Keelung River to Neihu District, before changing to an elevated mode and ending at Xintai 5th Road in Xizhi District, New Taipei City. The candidate Chiang Wang-an said that he will build the Minsheng-Xizhi Line as soon as possible once the central government approves the project. Chiang proposed the time, space, and transportation dimensions. The time dimension would be starting the construction of the two new MRT sections including Circular Line and Minsheng-Xizhi Line, the space dimension would be linking the Neihu technology park with the Nankang Software Park and the Beitou Shilin Technology Park to create a technology corridor, and the transportation dimension would be using smart transportation and big data analysis to improve public transportation. He criticized that the current mayor has not been willing to build the Minsheng-Xizhi Line just because it has no transfer.

The candidate Chen Shih-chung also promised that he will complete the Minsheng-Xizhi Line within 8 years instead of the original 10 years plan. Regarding the problem of Neihu traffic, the candidate Huang Shan-shan proposed the short term, middle term and long-term plans. The short-term plan would be to increase the capacity of public transportation and the middle-term plan would be the construction of the Minsheng-Xizhi Line. Last but not least, the long-term plan would be the moving of the Songshan Airport. She claimed that Minsheng-Xizhi Line cannot be completed overnight, so her plans are in a few phases step by step. In conclusion, all of the three candidates basically agreed with the construction of the Minsheng-Xizhi Line as soon as possible. They all believe that the problem of Neihu congestion can be solved with the completion of the Minsheng-Xizhi Line in the long run.

An Alternative Solution

While many of the candidates’ plans revolve around completing the MRT Circular line and building the MRT Minsheng-Xizhi line, some candidates also provide non-MRT alternative solutions to relieving the traffic congestion in Neihu. Candidate Chen takes a more short-term approach to solving traffic congestion, including coordinating with enterprises and controlling flow and congestion on the highway. He hopes to do this by building enterprises and alternate routes that would connect the Dazhi area to other areas in Taipei. However, Candidate Huang pushes back on this solution, claiming that many of Chen’s projects would require cooperation with the Freeway Bureau. Instead, Huang hopes to relocate the Songshan airport which would allow for more direct connections through Gangqian Rd. and Jihe Rd. across the Keelung River. Chiang also plans on increasing the frequency of shuttle buses for commuters to Neihu Science Park.

Previous Year's Budget

Period	Original Budget	Previous year’s budget after adjustments	110 year used budget	This year’s budget after adjustments	Previous year’s expenditure after taxes (Remark)	Unused budget
Total	41,507,547,967	27,003,558,790	163,160	27,003,721,950	10,511,443,115	3,992,382,902
1. Initial Road Network Project	30,297,515,950	22,877,882,028	0	22,877,882,028	7,389,633,922	30,000,000
First Phase	6,148,953,753	6,139,094,677	0	6,139,094,677	9,859,076	0
Second Phase	9,235,239,034	7,125,406,465	0	7,125,406,465	2,109,832,569	0
Third Phase	14,913,323,163	9,613,380,886	0	9,613,380,886	5,269,942,277	30,000,000
2. Subsequent Road Network Project	7,571,664,467	3,331,482,270	163,160	3,331,645,430	3,121,809,193	1,118,209,844
Xinzhuang Line and Luzhou Branch Line Phase III	1,284,920,623	166,710,779	0	166,710,779	0	1,118,209,844
East extension of Nangang Line	1,868,368,050	9,180,097	0	9,180,097	1,859,187,953	0
Xinyi Line	1,928,302,443	1,779,508,514	163,160	1,779,671,674	148,630,769	0
Songshan Line	2,490,073,351	1,376,082,880	0	1,376,082,880	1,113,990,471	0
3. Wanda-Zhonghe-Shulin Line (First Phase Project)	3,362,693,000	775,494,492	0	775,494,492	0	2,587,198,508
4. East extension of Xinyi Line	275,674,550	18,700,000	0	18,700,000	0	256,974,550

References

This article "Transportation" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Transportation. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

---