New Pingtung Railway Station

Taipei, Aug. 21 (CNA) Travel time by train between Pingtung and Chaozhou is expected to be cut by 15 minutes starting Sunday, making it easier for residents in Pingtung County to commute to Kaohsiung.

The Chaozhou project involves a 19 kilometer-long rail line from Pingtung station to Chaozhou station, and the objective of the project is to expand the Pingtung-Chaozhou route into an electrified double track line, according to the Railways Reconstruction Bureau, the agency responsible for the project.

The railway between Pingtung main station and Chaozhou station is also elevated enabling traffic around the stations to flow more smoothly, where 24 level crossings and six underpasses and overpasses will be eliminated, said the bureau.

With the completion of the project, travel time from Pingtung station to Chaozhou station will be trimmed down from 34 minutes to 19 minutes.

Commuting between Kaohsiung and Pingtung will be made easier as trains will run every ten minutes on a daily basis, added the bureau.

Tung A-cheng(董阿成), Pingtung station's station agent, said that while the line will open on Sunday, the double track will not open before next Wednesday as the track switchover has to be completed first, and major schedule changes will be made in October.

(By Chu-chen Kuo, Shu-fen Wang, and Angela Huang)
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