TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – New Transportation Minister Hochen Tan on Saturday denied media reports that he was going to veto a quicker rail connection between Taipei City and Yilan County on Taiwan’s northeast coast.
Hochen, the chairman of the Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, was announced earlier in the week as the transportation and communications minister in the new Cabinet taking over on May 20.
After the announcement, he was quoted as saying that unnecessary projects should not be constructed, which was interpreted as a reference to proposals such as a direct rail link between the capital and Yilan. He also emphasized the importance of the environment when deciding on major construction work.
Because most of his doubts seemed to center on projects on Taiwan’s relatively isolated east coast, politicians from Yilan and Hualien voiced concern at Hochen’s remarks.
On Saturday afternoon, the future minister reportedly messaged county governments on the east coast that his comments did not mean he would scrap the Yilan rail link.
Hochen said that during his talks with reporters, he had only made general policy remarks and never singled out any project in particular.
Officials of President-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s Democratic Progressive Party said that better communications were not only a hope of the local population, but also a promise of the new government. The DPP said the next Cabinet would have a different view of how the transportation needs of several regions had to be addressed.
A prominent problem for traffic along the east coast has been safety, with landslides during rainy weather and reckless driving by gravel truck drivers causing accidents. Hochen reportedly suggested that widening roads would not solve the problem, but that the region should consider the departure of the local cement industry.