CITIES AND COUNTIES VIE FOR THEIR OWN METRO LINES|"前瞻"公聽聚焦軌道建設 縣市首長關切

On Apr. 17, the Executive Yuan held a public hearing on the Tsai government's 'forward-looking' infrastructure plan. The budget for railways alone is NT$424.1 billion. All city mayors and county magistrates were present, except for Taipei City's Ko Wen-je who cancelled at the last moment. Responding to Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen's recent criticism of New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu for not attending airport public hearings, relying on telekinesis and arguing about budgets, Chu said he did not want political infighting to blur the focus on the greater Taipei area. The Executive Yuan held a public hearing on the Tsai government's 'forward-looking' infrastructure plan. Among the five sectors of the plan, the budget for rail is largest at NT$424.1 billion. Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen has recently criticised New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu on Facebook saying that he uses telekinetic powers to request budget instead of actually turning up for meetings. Chu responded to this when he arrived for the public hearing. ==ERIC CHU New Taipei City Mayor == My feeling was that withdrawing to the second line would mean less political infighting, so that that wouldn't be used as an excuse. But, it looks las though I should still attend myself, otherwise people say I'm not working hard enough, or I'm not willing to advocate for the projects. All city mayors and county magistrates were present at the public hearing on the 'forward-looking' infrastructure plan. Taichung City Mayor Lin Chia-lung said that he wanted to apply for a loop line metro system between Taichung, Changhua and Nantou. Kaohiung City has had approval for 90 percent of its budget, Mayor Chen Chu asked for central funds to build another metro line in the city. ==CHEN CHU Kaohsiung City Mayor == The country's development should be balanced between the north and the south, you can't have this imbalance, its inappropriate. ==[[and]LIN CHIA-LUNG Taichung City Mayor == I hope that this metro line will be extended to Changhua, this is included in the government's infrastructure plan. Compared with Kaohsiung, Taipei City requested just NT$87.8 billion and the central government has approved none of it as yet. Taipei City Mayor Ko cancelled his attendence at the meeting at the last minute and said that the budget depended on how much of it was actually used. He said the rate of use of budget in Taipei City was 66 percent, meaning that there was money there which could not be spent. He said that metros were mythical and having overlapping metro departments was a problem. ==KO WEN-JE Taipei City Mayor == Today this figure of NT$420 billion has been given again, but which are the departments implementing this, using this budget? If you want to allow each city and county to set up their own metro construction departments and build these themselves, I can foresee a lot of problems, at the moment Taiwan does not need five different metro construction departments. Past rail infrastructure projects emphasised the north at the expense of the south, and ignored the central region altogether. These rail infrastructure projects, apart from the hoped for positive economic benefits, have incorporated the development of urban and rural areas into the mix, so there is bound to be wrestling between each city and county over budgets. TRANSLATED BY：CLARE LEAR 行政院前瞻基礎建設計畫，今天舉行公聽會。軌道建設預算高達4241億，各縣市首長都列席，只有台北市長柯文哲臨時取消出席。面對政務委員張景森日前說新北市長朱立倫過去幾場公聽會不出席，是用念力爭取預算，今天朱立倫澄清，他是不希望泛政治化模糊焦點。 行政院前瞻基礎建設計劃五大建設，就屬軌道建設4241億元，規模最大，不過日前行政院政務委張景森，才在臉書酸了新北市長朱立倫靠念力爭取預算，讓朱立倫一早現身公聽會，火力全開。 ==新北市長 朱立倫== 過去我曾經的想法是說 退居第二線 少一點政治因素 免得有人找這個當藉口 但是看來我還是得親自來 因為否則的話 又有人說不認真 或者是不願意推動 前瞻基礎建設計劃公聽會，各縣市爭取軌道預算，台中市提報1290億，台中市長林佳龍表示，要爭取中彰投環狀捷運網；至於預算核定率達9成的高雄市，市長陳菊為捷運黃線，向中央喊話。 ==高雄市長 陳菊== 國家的發展都應該南北平衡 這個國家才是一個均衡的發展 不能頭重腳輕 這樣不妥適吧 ==台中市長 林佳龍== 這個捷運的綠線 我們希望能夠延伸到彰化 這個部份前瞻計畫也有納入 比起高雄市，台北市提報878億元，至今中央核准率仍然是零，臨時缺席公聽會的台北市長柯文哲，今天直言預算得看執行率，北市府執行率約66%，等於有錢也無法花，而且"捷運"是迷思，捷運單位重疊更是問題。 ==台北市長 柯文哲== 今天這4200億再丟下去 可是到底執行單位要是誰 如果要讓每個縣市 自己去成立捷運工程局 自己去蓋的話 你知道嗎 我現在就看到很多問題了 現階段台灣都不需要 五個捷運工程局了 過去軌道建設，重北輕南，中部更晚，這次軌道建設，除了經濟效益，恐怕城鄉均衡發展也得納入思考，各縣市爭預算，勢必也有角力戰。 記者 綜合報導