◎ Wu Guodong
A few days ago, Mr. Yang Qingyuan wrote a book titled "The case of high-speed rail extension to Yilan is not about whether it should be built, but how to build it." He criticized the construction of Yilan high-speed rail, questioning the route detours, too long construction period, improper location of maintenance plants, and even pointed out that the planning of specific areas is "a tool of money-power politics and land speculation." However, this article not only seriously lacks the basic knowledge of modern railway engineering, geological science and transportation dispatching, but also negates the rights and interests of Eastern Taiwan's century-old development as a foreigner. Major transportation construction requires a vision that spans half a century, rather than the prejudice of missing the forest for the trees. The author believes that it is necessary to clarify the erroneous discussion in this article based on the development and successful history of Taiwan's high-speed rail west line.
Some people question the Yilan high-speed railway project plan because of the detour and the long construction period. (File photo, provided by the Ministry of Transportation) First of all, the article accused the Yilan High-speed Railway line of not being "straightened" and complained that the 11-year construction period was too long, completely exposing Mr. Yang Qingyuan's extreme ignorance of engineering geology science. The core reason why the current high-speed rail route abandons the straight line and chooses to detour through Pingxi and Gongliao is to completely avoid the Feicui Reservoir catchment area and protect the drinking water sources for millions of people in Shuangbei, Keelung and Yilan. Looking back, the National Highway No. 5 Xueshan Tunnel excavation project lasted for 15 years (1991-2006). Unfortunately, the underground water veins accumulated in the Xueshan Mountains for millions of years were cut off, causing a surge of groundwater from the "Da Qingbei Fault", causing damage to the Lanyang River water system and a plummeting groundwater level. Mr. Yang Qingyuan said that "his hometown is in Yilan City." He should remember this history of blood and tears, right?
High-speed rail with a speed of up to 300 kilometers per hour has absolutely "zero" tolerance for track subsidence. The government respected the professional assessments of engineering experts and geologists and set a long construction period of 11 years precisely to conduct extremely precise pre-geological drilling and to solve the technical challenges of carrying out the highly difficult "four-rail co-structure" elevated construction while "maintaining the normal operation of the existing Taiwan Railway." To blindly pursue "straightening" and forcefully invade water sources and geologically sensitive areas is the greatest irresponsibility for the environment and public safety.
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The high-speed rail abandons straight lines and chooses to detour through Pingxi and Gongliao. The core purpose is to completely avoid the Feicui Reservoir catchment area and protect the drinking water sources for millions of people in Shuangbei, Keelung and Yilan. (File photo, provided by the Bureau of Management) Secondly, the article strongly questioned the location of the Yilan High-Speed Rail Maintenance Plant and suggested that it "should be located in the west or Xizhi." It also directly exposed the dual ignorance of the history of high-speed rail construction and railway transportation in northern Taiwan. The early Kuomintang government planned a 64-hectare "high-speed rail maintenance plant reservation" in Xizhi Hengke, which belonged to a hillside conservation area with broken terrain and huge height differences. After strict environmental assessment and detailed water conservation design, it was confirmed that the project risk of cutting off the mountain and preparing the land to fit into the high-speed rail giant factory building was too high. Taiwan High-Speed Rail Company was forced to abandon the development after entering the site for evaluation. This resulted in the Western High-Speed Rail finally having to locate the maintenance plant in Hsinchu Liujia.
The more fatal flaw lies in the transportation scheduling logic. The "daily and monthly inspections" after trains close late at night are an absolute dead line for maintaining driving safety. If the maintenance plant is relocated to Xizhi or the west according to Mr. Yang Qingyuan's "layman's fantasy", when the high-speed rail is extended to Yilan in the future, and the operation ends every night, the high-speed rail train will have to go back to Xizhi or even Hsinchu with an "empty train" for maintenance, and will have to return empty train to Yilan for the first train early the next morning. This is not only an extremely stupid waste of energy and time, but will also seriously deprive the extremely precious "rail line safety maintenance time" from 0:00 to 5:00 in the middle of the night.
In fact, because the train must be returned for maintenance early, the last train from Yilan to Taipei will be forced to be earlier, and the first train will be delayed the next day, seriously depriving Yilan people of their commuting rights to integrate into the half-hour technological life circle of Greater Taipei! Therefore, the "on-site maintenance" planned in Yilan Duan is the best solution to correct the mistakes of the Kuomintang's policies and reject ineffective losses.
As for the specific areas of the high-speed rail being labeled as "mosquito breeding, land speculation, and destruction of good agricultural land," this is a short-sighted rehash of the same old tune. Looking back at the early days when the Western Taiwan High Speed Rail was opened to traffic in 2007, certain areas such as Taoyuan Qingpu, Hsinchu Liujia, Taichung Wuri, and Tainan Sharon were also severely ridiculed by public opinion as "desolate, with more wild dogs than people, high vacancy rates, and mosquitoes." But 20 years later, everything has been proven. Today, Taoyuan Qingpu has been transformed into an international business city; Hsinchu Liujia has been transformed into an upstart Bamboo family settlement where demand exceeds supply; and Tainan Sharon is a national-level green energy and medical science city.
The Yilan end station of the high-speed rail extension project to Yilan is scheduled to be 350 meters south of the county center, and a new town is planned to be formed in the Yilan high-speed rail specific area. (File photo) The successful experience of the Western Main Line has clearly verified a truth: Site selection for major rail construction must focus on the urban development hinterland in the next 20 or 50 years! If, in order to blindly pursue "convenience in the early stages of opening to traffic", the station was forced into the old urban area that was already saturated, with narrow roads and difficulty in expropriation, it would not only lead to a complete paralysis of local traffic, but also make it impossible to introduce modern industrial clusters. In the end, it would only stifle opportunities for local transformation and upgrading.
In the early stages of development of any emerging special district, it will inevitably go through a "painful period" when public facilities and living functions are moved in. However, this is by no means a reason to oppose construction and erase Taiwan's future. The Yilan High-Speed Railway is a strategic fuse that opens up the industrial artery in eastern Taiwan and essentially integrates the Yilan Science Park into the one-hour science and technology living circle of Greater Taipei. Amid the wave of global geopolitics and the overall outbreak of AI chips, dispersing the risk of excessive concentration of semiconductors in the West has become a key consideration for the country. Yilan has underground gravel aquifers accumulated over tens of millions of years in the Daxue Mountains and has an astonishing amount of water storage. Coupled with the drilling of deep geothermal energy in the Lanyang Plain, it has the potential to provide all-weather, carbon-free base-load green electricity in the future. With the high-speed rail, Yilan can transform into a modern "tech zone" under a low-pollution, high-production-value urban planning. This is the long-term approach that truly takes into account local livelihoods and homeland security.
The drilling of deep geothermal energy in the Lanyang Plain has the potential to provide all-weather, carbon-free green electricity in the future. The picture shows Academia Sinica and China National Petroleum Corporation drilling a "deep geothermal detection well" in Yuanshan, Yilan. For the first time, it drilled to nearly 4,000 meters underground. The measured temperature at the bottom of the well was nearly 150 degrees Celsius. (File photo, provided by Academia Sinica) A major transportation construction often takes decades of waiting from planning to completion. Citizens who truly care for their local areas should supervise how the government "properly constructs and implements the three-rail co-construction and connection network" instead of being like Mr. Yang Qingyuan who simply denies construction outright because he is afraid of the shock of initial development. The author is here to draw out some ideas and hopes that transportation experts, urban planning scholars, and real Yilan locals will come forward to inject more rational and professional discussions into this major construction that is related to the century-old development of eastern Taiwan. Don’t let laymen’s prejudices hinder Taiwan’s forward-looking pace.
(The author is a retired trade promoter)
