Tainan Proposes Monorail System

Tainan has proposed building a monorail, which it calls a "light metro" (輕量捷運), and which would run from near the intersection of Xiaodong and Zhonghua Roads to Anping and connect to planned bus transfer stations.  Tainan's Transportation Commissioner Zhang Zhengyuan (張政源) claims that a monorail would be more convenient than a light rail system, could be privately run, would cost half as much as light rail (?!) and, since it could be built above medians, construction wouldn't disrupt traffic.  He also claimed that travel times could be reduced to less than 10 minutes.  The city government hopes to conduct a viability study next year.

While I'm glad Tainan is taking some tentative steps to building a rail system, I can't help but be skeptical about Tainan's choice of mode when they claim that an elevated monorail would be cheaper than an at-grade light rail system.  Of course, it will be a long time before we know if anything will come of this at all.

Taiwan's Transportation Mode Share

The chart below shows what kinds of transport Taiwanese used to travel in 2012 for trips for a specific purpose that exceeded 500 meters, according to the same Ministry of Transportation survey I referenced when I looked at why Taiwanese don't take mass transit.

Mode	% in 2012	% change vs. 2009
Private vehicle	72.6%	-1.0%
Mass transit	15.0%	+1.6%
Walking or cycling	12.4%	-0.7%

And this is the mode share for commuting to either work or school:

Mode	% in 2012	% change vs. 2009
Private vehicle	74.1%	+0.6%
Mass transit	18.3%	+1.2%
Walking or cycling	7.7%	-1.7%

Unsurprisingly, private motorized transport- i.e., cars or scooters- are dominant.  However, this rate is lower than what I've heard of in developed countries (I think 90-95% in the US, 80% in Japan, though I haven't been able to find a good source for comparable data).  My guess is Taiwan's relatively low rate of private vehicle trips is the result of its density, and maybe from its lower average income.
While mass transit is growing more popular, a more unfortunate trend is a decrease in walking and cycling, especially to get to work or school.  I can't say why this is occurring, though it certainly suggests Taiwan's terrible sidewalks aren't improving much.
Below are the percentages for each specific form of transportation, with growth rates since 2011.

Mode	% in 2012, all trips	change vs. 2011	% in 2012, commutes	change vs. 2011
Scooter	47.8%	-0.7%	49.4%	+0.1%
Car	23.2%	-0.9%	22.7%	-0.9%
Bus	9.0%	+0.8%	11.5%	+0.7%
Walking	7.2%	+0.5%	3.9%	0
Bicycle	5.2%	+0.3%	3.8%	+0.5%
MRT	3.9%	0	4.8%	-0.2%
Train	1.3%	+0.1%	1.6%	+0.1%
Taxi	0.6%	-0.1%	0.2%	0
HSR	0.1%	-0.1%	n/a	n/a

Also unsurprisingly, scooters are by far the favorite mode in Taiwan, though they don't quite account for half of all trips.  For mass transit, buses (which include highway and freeway coaches as well as city buses) are the most popular form, which is also not unexpected given Taiwan's limited rail coverage outside the Taipei Basin.  More surprising to me is the popularity of cycling, despite the poor cycling conditions in most Taiwanese cities.
In contrast to the period between 2009 and 2012, trends between 2011 and 2012 have mostly been positive- according to the report's introduction the 2012 was the first year that public transit and non-motorized transit both gained mode share.  The MRT was an exception to this trend, however, and didn't gain mode share despite the opening of the Xinzhuang Line- in fact, it lost a little for commutes.  Buses have been doing pretty well, however.

Taipei MRT Will Implement Different Routes After 11PM

If you pay attention to the posters in Taipei's MRT, you've probably noticed that the MRT's routing will be rearranged when the Xinyi Line opens sometime over the next month.  Specifically, the current Beitou-Taipower Building line will separate from the Danshui-Xindian Line at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and run along the new Xinyi Line, while the Xiaonanmen Line will be extended from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall south to Taipower Building.  The routing in the MRT's original plan was a bit simpler, with the Xiaonanmen and Xindian Lines becoming one line, while the Danshui Line would be extended along the Xinyi Line.  This routing would have let the Xinyi Line run at full capacity, but it would also force Xindian Line passengers bound for stations on the Danshui Line to transfer, so the more complicated routing was chosen.
Now the MRT has announced that the Xinyi Line's route will change after 11PM.  To avoid having too many trains traveling on the elevated section of the Danshui Line and disturbing nearby residents, after 11 the Xinyi Line will terminate at Taipei Main Station.  The idea (I think) is that both the Xinyi Line and the whole of the Danshui-Xindian Line will run at 12 minute headways, but if they merged the headways would shrink to 6 minutes.
If this is the case, it means that once the Xinyi Line opens, service on the Danshui Line will actually be worse than it is now.  Now the section of the Danshui Line between Taipower Building and Beitou has 6 minute headways after 11PM, with this new routing headways will go up to 12 minutes- not a small difference.  Moreover, having two different routings is confusing- navigating a mass transit system should be as intuitive as possible; having two routings for different times of day will require riders to pay extra attention.  While I'm usually sympathetic to quality of life issues, it does strike me as a double standard: the MRT is very sensitive to noise complaints despite not being especially loud, but neither the Taipei nor the New Taipei governments seem interested in quieting down scooters, and New Taipei sometimes even does road construction late at night to avoid disrupting traffic.  Furthermore, there has been a rail line along the same route as the Danshui Line for nearly 100 years now, so it is worth asking why people who are bothered by the sound of trains moved there in the first place.

Plans for Wider Xinsheng S. Rd. Sidewalks

This is old news now, but worth a mention.  According to the Liberty Times, Taipei is planning on expanding the sidewalks along the section of Xinsheng S. Rd. between Roosevelt and Xinhai Roads from 3 meters wide to 5 to 8 meters as part of its "Shaded Boulevard Pedestrian Environment Improvement Design Plan" （林蔭大道人行環境改善設計計劃）.  Two car lanes will be removed, leaving this section of Xinsheng with three lanes in each direction.  New Construction Office Director Chen Der-yih (陳德意) claimed that this will disrupt traffic flow but within "tolerable" levels.  Construction is set to take place next year.  The new sidewalk space will be used for bicycle lanes and seating areas for adjacent restaurants.  Other streets slated for pedestrian improvements are Heping West Rd. Sec. 3 and Roosevelt Rd. Sections 5 and 6, though the former has encountered local opposition.
I'm definitely happy to see Taipei allocate more space to non-driving uses, just because of the environmental, safety and transportation efficiency benefits that discouraging driving brings.  That said, I think Taipei's focus on major boulevards is misguided- generally speaking the sidewalks on Taipei's main roads are adequate for the amount of pedestrians they have, though they certainly do need more space for cyclists.  This is certainly the case on this part of Xinsheng S. Rd: though not the most spacious sidewalk in Taipei, the west side of the road is never gridlocked and feels very safe, and the east side is even better.  Adding cycling paths would be great, and would provide a link between the Gongguan Ubike station and the Xinhai/Xinsheng station, but from the pedestrian's perspective this is already one of the nicer walks in Taipei.  Instead of focus on wide streets like Xinsheng, which could be better but are fine as is, I think Taipei should focus first on the areas that actually make walking terrible: medium-width streets like Lishui St., Jingwen St., Jinhua St. and so on that are wide enough for cars to drive fast but have no sidewalks, and intersections that lack crosswalks (like Shida Rd./Heping Rd., Zhongxiao W. Rd./Gongyuan Rd., or Xinsheng S. Rd. and Roosevelt Rd.).  In these situations, Taipei blatantly favors driving, refusing in the first case even to provide safe passage for pedestrians, even though the urban environment is far better suited to walking than driving.  It's when Taipei addresses these problems that we will know the government is seriously committed to improving the pedestrian environment rather than simply making cosmetic changes.

Taoyuan Announces Taoyuan-Xinzhuang Line Alternatives

Last week the Taoyuan County government released two alternatives for a rapid transit line between Taoyuan Train Station and Huilong MRT Station, slated to be the Taoyuan MRT's Brown Line.  The first alternative would be what the linked article calls light rail, and would run underground in Taoyuan City and elevated for the rest of its length.  (I was under the impression, however, that in Taiwan a rail line had to run on the surface for at least a quarter of its length to count as light rail.)  It would be 11.5km long, and cost NT$23.5 billion, or NT$2 billion/km (US$67 million/km).  Its depreciation rate, or the portion of construction costs that would be paid through operating profits, would be just over 30%.  The second alternative is a monorail line, which would be elevated for its full length and cost NT$16.4 billion, or NT$1.4 billion (US$47 million/km).  The lower cost would bring a higher depreciation rate, of 40%.  Presumably this is largely because the whole route would be elevated, which would be more acceptable with monorail since they can use sleeker support structures.

Feasibility Study for the Hengchun Branch Line

A little while ago I wrote about a Ministry of Transportation proposal to build a rail line from Kaohsiung to Hengchun.  According to the Central News Agency, the ministry has now has allotted NT$8 million (US$270,000) for a feasibility study which will determine if the line will be worth building.  The study will begin next year, and, if everything goes smoothly, construction could begin in 2017 and finish by 2023.  The line is expected to cost as least NT$30 billion (just over US$1 billion), and would be 38 kilometers long.  This comes out to NT$789 million/km (US$26 million/km).
A trip from New Zuoying to Hengchun on the line would take 90 minutes.  Currently seven million people make the trip to Kending every year.

Squeezing Yet More Trains onto the Bannan Line

The United Daily recently had an interesting report about how the MRT has saved time during rush hour on the Bannan Line.  Every weekday between 8 and 9 AM the MRT has stationed workers on the Bannan Line platforms at Zhongxiao Xinsheng and Taipei Main whose sole task is closing each train's doors.  This might sound wasteful, but the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp. claims it has allowed them to run two more trains during rush hour, permitting 29 trains per hour which can fit 3,000 more people, and reducing headways by fifteen seconds, to 2 minutes and 5 seconds.
Typically, after an MRT train stops, the driver steps out of the cab and only reenters once they see everyone has boarded the train.  According to Tan Gwa Gwang, president of the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp., the TRTC determined that this takes 5 seconds.  To save this time, the TRTC stationed staff near the driver's cab to watch the monitors showing passengers boarding and exiting the train, so the driver doesn't need to leave the cab.  When the warning alarm sounds, they reach into the cab and place their finger on the door closing button.  Once the alarm stops and there are no more passengers entering or exiting the train, they press the button and motion to the driver to leave the station.
Last year the TRTC had already saved 10 seconds per train by adding crowd control staff to Zhongxiao Xinsheng and Taipei Main's platforms.