Congratulations to Taichung! The Green Line of the Taichung MRT will be officially operated soon. Mayor Lu Shiou-Yen today (the 28th) greeted the Mayor of Taipei City, Ko Wen-Je and the Taipei MRT engineering team that assists in the building of Taichung MRT system and accompanied them to listen to progress and construction presentations and jointly unveil the integrated structure image of the Taichung MRT, the Taiwan Railways and the Taiwan High Speed Rail, an artistic way to showcase a MRT car in the space. Later, two mayors rode on the MRT to arrive at the City Government Station to first experience the comfort and convenience of Taichung MRT to show the determination of its official operations by the end of the year.
In today's unveiling ceremony, Mayor Lu and Ko exchanged souvenirs symbolizing the MRT systems to commemorate this important moment. After the unveiling, the entrance of the integrated structure of the MRT was presented based on the design theme of "a MRT car." Guests were greeted by Taichung's mascots, the Leopard Cat family "Love & Life" as well as " Old Horsiver." Guests then were guided to take their rides on the MRT. Afterwards, Mayor Lu and Mayor Ko swiped their cards to enter the station and took the lift to arrive and sit at the car side by side. They rode from THSR Taichung Station to the City Hall Station on the Taichung MRT to inspect the operations.
Mayor Lu pointed out that the Green Line of Taichung MRT is especially meaningful. It is not only the first line of Taichung MRT but is constructed with the cooperation among the Taichung Government, the Taipei Government and the Central Government. Mayor Lu added that when serving as a legislator, she worked with all efforts to propose the construction to the Central Government and the proposal was then jointly promoted by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), the Taichung City Government and the Taipei City Government. Former MOTC Minister, Mao Chi-Kuo, former Mayors of Taichung and Taipei, Jason Hu and Hau Lung-bin, jointly signed the MOU to bring the rich engineering experience of the Department of Rapid Transit System of the Taipei City Government to build the high quality transit system in Central Taiwan. After three mayors and under her leadership now, the Taichung MRT will be officially operated. Mayor Lu would like to welcome everyone in Taiwan to visit Taichung and ride on the newest MRT.
Mayor Ko said that after a decade, this major MRT construction is expected to be completed soon. This year the integrated structure was completed following the completion of theme structure last year. The completion of Taichung's first MRT line symbolizes a new page in Taichung’s history. He especially thanked the efforts of all employees and staff of the Taichung and Taipei City Government.
According to the Transportation Bureau, under the cooperation between Taichung and Taipei, the construction of the Green Line of Taichung MRY has been carried out smoothly and officially completed on August 24th and submitted to the MOTC for inspection. The Bureau would like to thank the efforts and contributions made by the team from the Taipei City Government. Today's detailed presentation delivered by the engineering team firmly enhanced the determination of Mayor Lu to officially operate this Taichung's first MRT line by the end of this year.
The Transportation Bureau pointed out that in order to speed up the schedule of the official operations of the MRT, after the initial inspection conducted by the Taichung City Government on August 7th, eight items for improvement as suggested by commissioners of the initial inspection were completed on August 15th including fastening pipelines, cleaning the environment of the track areas, prevention measures inside machinery rooms, accuracy of signs, operation of lifts, grounding improvement for the signal system, communication stability of intercom system inside MRT cars, and even surface preparation of the pedestrian paths in front of the exit of Daqing Station. Submission of further inspection was handed to the MOTC on August 24th for the completion of the last mile of the Taichung MRT that is expected to bring new life and prosperous economy and commercial development to Taichung.
This afternoon Mayor Lu Shiou-Yen listened to the engineering presentation made by the team under the leadership of Mayor Ko Wen-Je and unveiled the image of the gate of the integrated structure. Later accompanied by Deputy Mayor, Chen Tzi-Ching, Director General of Transportation Bureau, Yeh Chao-Fu, and President of Taichung MRT Corporation, Lin Chi-Ying, Mayor Lu inspected the stations of the Green Line including THSR Station, City Hall and Beitun Terminal. Attendees also included Deputy Mayor of the Taipei City Government, Peng Chan-Sheng, Deputy Mayor, Tsai Ping-Kun, and Director General of the Transportation Bureau of the Taipei City Government, Chang Che-Hsiung, and Councilmen of Taichung City, Hung Chiang-Hou, Wu Chiung-Hua, and Chen Ting-Hsiou. The representative from the office of Legislator Chen Po-Wei also participated.