Underground Tainan Railway Station could open by mid-October, bureau says
NEW AND IMPROVED: The railway project also adds two underground stations, Linsen and South Tainan, which are scheduled to open in 2029 and 2030 respectively
By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter, in Tainan
The new underground Tainan Railway Station could be operational by mid-October if it passes inspection next month, the Railway Bureau said yesterday.
The project has finished a series of key preparations and entered its final stage, bureau Director-General Yang Chen-chun (楊正君) said.
The station passed its accessibility inspection last month and its fire safety inspection this month, and has obtained the required completion certification for special-purpose buildings, he said.
People view a portion of the new underground Tainan Railway Station yesterday.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
Integrated testing and trial operations along the entire line have also been completed, he added.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is expected to conduct a final inspection next month, he said, adding that it could be opened as early as mid-October.
The Railway Bureau’s Southern Region Engineering Branch said the Tainan Urban District Railway Underground Project spans 8.23km.
In addition to converting Tainan Station into an underground facility, the project adds two new underground commuter stations: Linsen (林森) and South Tainan (南臺南).
Once the project is completed, it is expected to eliminate nine railroad crossings, eight underpasses, four overpasses and two railway bridge crossings, removing 23 railway-road intersections and reducing the barrier posed by the railway to urban traffic and space, the office said.
To maintain railway operations during construction, the project is being carried out in two phases.
After the first phase, the ground-level railway tracks would be dismantled, followed by the second phase of construction and landscaping work at ground level, the office said.
Linsen Station is scheduled to open in 2029, followed by South Tainan Station in 2030, it added.
The main station’s signage and wayfinding system would be available in four languages — Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean — the first railway station in Taiwan to have this feature.
About 85 percent of the rail materials used in the project are domestically produced, the office said.
The station would feature a third-rail power supply, a ballastless track and high-performance vibration-isolation materials to improve ride stability and comfort, it said.
The tunnels would have a centralized control and ventilation system to provide real-time monitoring of passenger traffic and equipment operations, the office said.
A Taiwan Railway boxed lunch shop and convenience stores would also be opened at the Tainan Railway Station when it begins operations, it added.
Yang said Tainan Station is a heritage station that carries a century of railway history, and the underground railway project has managed to preserve the historic station during the new construction.
The project would create a new gateway to the city that combines cultural heritage with modern convenience, he said.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.