PINGTUNG RESIDENTS UNSATISFIED WITH HIGH SPEED RAIL EXTENSION ESTIMATED BUDGET|屏爭高鐵南延 只給800萬評估引反彈

Pingtung County residents have long been fighting the possibility of extending the high speed rail station to Pingtung. The Ministry of Transportation held a press conference yesterday afternoon and reaffirmed that regarding the "Project for Extending Taiwan High Speed Rail to Pingtung Station" the Central Government will incorporate an estimated budget of NT$8 million into the "Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Plan" In the afternoon, there are three to four trains from Kaohsiung to Pingtung per hour. If passengers were to return to Pingtung from other cities, they will need to spend extra 40 minutes to one hour if taking high speed rail and making a transfer at Taiwan Railways station. ==PINGTUNG COUNTY RESIDENT== Very troublesome, indeed. Are you asking from Kaohsiung to Chaozhou? They have only few trains and we need to wait for very long time. ==PINGTUNG COUNTY RESIDENT== You must make a transfer if you come to Pingtung. Just like I am returning from Taichung, high speed rail does not have transfer. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications sponsored a forum of the Forward-looking Infrastructure Program. The ministry listed out six railway projects in Pingtung, including Hengchun and Donggang tourism railways, assessment budget for Kaohsiung MRT extension to Pingtung. As to the long debated issue of high speed rail extension to Pingtung, nothing new but NT$8 million assessment budget. ==LIN YUNG-SHUN Agribusiness Mgmt. Dept. Chair, NPUST== The damn thing is, NT$8 million for assessing from Kaohsiung to Pingutng. What do you treat people in Pingtung? What is that NT$8 million for? ==LIU YU-HAO Councilor, Pingtung County Council== Why is that so difficult? The Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, I do support its railway projects. As Councilor Chen just said, why don't you just give this NT$40 billion to our Pingtung County Government? County officials said that Pingtung residents have been asking for high speed rail extension, they are not interested in regular railway projects. The ministry officials replied, the infrastructure program must first pass review by Legislative Yuan. As to the request, they are to discuss again during implementation. TRANSLATED BY: ANTHONY LIN 屏東各界多次爭取高鐵南延，交通部下午到屏東，召開前瞻建設說明會，除了新增高捷也要延伸到屏東，高鐵南延案仍維持只花800萬元做評估，引發現場各界人士，群起反彈。 下午時段，高雄到屏東的火車班次，一小時內有3到4個班次，從外地要回屏東，民眾說，搭高鐵到高雄轉台鐵，都要再多花40分到一個小時。 ==屏東縣民== 很麻煩啊 還麻煩的 你說從高雄到潮州嗎 就是它班次很少 就要等很久 ==屏東縣民== 來屏東一定要轉車 就像我從台中回來就是 因為高鐵沒有轉 交通部下午在屏東召開前瞻計畫說明會，列出要給屏東的六項軌道建設，除了先前提過的恆春、東港觀光鐵路，還新增高捷延伸到屏東的評估規劃與環評費用，但屏東各界爭取多次的高鐵南延，依舊只有800萬元的評估費用。 ==屏科大農企系系主任 林永順== 可惡的是 高雄到屏東 編列了800萬的規劃 把我們屏東人當什麼 800萬是當什麼用的 ==屏東縣議員 劉育豪== 有那麼困難嗎 我覺得這個前瞻計畫 前瞻的軌道計劃 我也滿支持的啦 剛剛我們陳議員也有講 你不如就把這個400億 拿來我們屏東縣政府 連縣府官員都說屏東要的是高鐵，還有地方鄉鎮長認為，交通部預定給的軌道建設，都令屏東人無感，不如把總經費400億元撥給縣政府自己建設。交通部則表示，當下目標希望先讓前瞻計畫通過立法院審查，針對屏東的需求，會在執行時，再做滾動式檢討。 記者 王介村 陳顯坤 屏東報導