High Speed Rail Extension: Serving Politicians More Important than Serving Passengers

 High Speed Rail Extension: Serving Politicians More Important than Serving Passengers

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

September 11, 2019

 Translation of an Excerpt

Premier Su Tseng-chang went to Pingtung yesterday, announcing that the High Speed Rail (HSR) would be extended southward to Pingtung, “resurrecting” overnight the plan that had been vetoed by both former premiers Lin Chuan and Lai Ching-te. This does not mean that Su Tseng-chang's "cardiopulmonary resuscitation" was superb, but while next January's presidential election is only 100-plus days away, he wants to, with all efforts, help boost Tsai Ing-wen’s electoral prospects. The southward extension of the HSR would cost NT$61.9 billion, which is not paled at all in comparison with the myriad subsidies tossed out by Premier Su; the point is all aim at electioneering.

Summing up the criticism from various circles, to say that this time Su Tseng-chang gaveled down on the policy of the HSR southern extension is for serving the needs of the public in the Pingtung area, it would be better to say it is for satisfying the needs of politicians. It is crystal clear by looking at a few figures: First, the HSR will only schedule one train to Pingtung per hour, while the Taiwan Railway has six trains to Pingtung per hour; will the High Speed Rail be more convenient and faster? Second, the assessment two years ago concluded that the volume of passengers from Zuoying, the current HSR terminal, to Pingtung average 4,000 to 5,000 man-trips per day; the assessment this time says the volume would decline to 3,500 to 4,600 per day, showing an unoptimistic assessment. Third, spending over NT$60 billion for the construction only offers convenience to a minority of the public and political figures going north or going south, could this be called a rational public investment?

What is unbelievable that some experts and scholars, even the members of the ad hoc review committee of the case, have unanimously opposed the idea; under such circumstances, the Tsai government still made a decision, with great fanfare, that “it had to be done.” In this kind of arrogant measures showing “politics takes precedence over professionalism”, the public, from the sudden changes in policy decisions, have learned the highhandedness and flip-flopping of the DPP in the Shen'ao Power Plant case from “it had to be built” to “stopping construction overnight.” When the powers-that-be do not respect professionalism, do not care about public opinion, and do not mind leaving debts to our children and grandchildren, will the people still believe that their policy decisions were for “Taiwan's future in the next century”?

It’s election campaign time; "Pingtung people deserve to have a High Speed Rail" is a very good sentence construction for publicity, but also a fiction. During President Chen Shui-bian’s term, an airport was built in Pingtung; six years later, because of insufficient passenger volume, it was closed down, and now, Tsai Ing-wen is following in his footsteps.

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