Tainan City Government is actively planning the construction of a monorail system as the final piece of a comprehensive public transport network in Tainan. With the addition of the monorail, residents and visitors will have a full array of public transport options to take them around the city with the utmost convenience.
Feasibility studies for two lines of the monorail system have already been completed, and will soon be submitted to the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for review and approval. One, the Green Line, will run horizontally across the city, and the other, the Blue Line, will have a circular route around the city.
Taking account of Tainan’s particular traffic and road features, it is anticipated that a straddle-beam monorail will be chosen as the best type of monorail for the city. The straddle-beam monorail, in which the train straddles a reinforced concrete beam, is the most common type of monorail in use today. The construction of this monorail is expected to put in place the last piece of the jigsaw for the rapid transitization of Tainan’s public transport system.
In the City Government’s current plans, the Green Line will cover a distance of 11.9 km between the Pingshih terminus station and Tainan City Hall, passing through East, North, West Central and Anping Districts. The Blue Line will have the same end stations, but will run along a much longer circular course of 27.3 km through East, North, West Central, Anping, South and Rende Districts.
A key advantage of the straddle-beam type of monorail is that it can be well fitted in with Tainan’s narrow and short-sectioned roads, and can be well matched with the city’s particular traffic conditions. It also has the significant advantages of costing less and requiring a shorter time for construction. As further pluses, its impact on the cityscape and environment will be relatively slight, and it will be better able to meet the city’s future transport needs.
The City Government’s blueprint for rapid transitizing Tainan’s public transport system has five main elements. The first four consist of turning the bus and TRA train services into rapid transit systems, developing transfer stations, and integrating ticketing. The fifth and final part is the planning of a monorail network for an “advanced transport system.” The City Government will spare no effort in pushing forward and completing this last piece of the jigsaw, to endow Tainan with the rapid transit public transport system it envisions for the city.