Nangang station to ease congestion

Staff writer, with CNA





The new Nangang (南港) high-speed railway station is expected to relieve overcrowding at Taipei Railway Station, Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp (THSRC) chairman Victor Liu (劉維琪) said yesterday at the opening of station.

Liu said the station would absorb about one-third of the high-speed rail passengers who use Taipei Railway Station and would facilitate travel by businesspeople to Neihu Technology Park in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) and Nangang Software Park. It will be a more convenient and comfortable trip for businesspeople who usually transfer at Taipei Railway Station to reach the two parks, he said.

He said that Nangang has become a transit station for trains traveling on the high-speed rail line, Taiwan Railways Administration lines and the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit system.

An intercity bus station is also to be built near the station, making Nangang the largest transit station in eastern Taipei providing transportation services to New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止), Keelung and Yilan County, as well as Neihu, Liu said.

The addition of Nangang Station has brought the number of stations along the 339km high-speed rail line to 12 and the station has replaced Taipei Railway Station as the starting point for southbound trains.

As part of the change, the first southbound and northbound trains are to depart at 6:15am, instead of 6:30am, he said.

Travel time on the high-speed rail from the Nangang Station to the Zuoying Station (左營) in Kaohsiung is 1 hour, 45 minutes.