Taipei, June 29 (CNA) A trial run of Taiwan's first rail biking system in Miaoli County is expected to begin in late August after testing of the system has been completed, the county government said Friday.

The system, called the Rail Bike, is fully built and now undergoing testing on the tracks that should come to a conclusion on Aug. 15, according to the county's Culture and Tourism Bureau.

During the trial run, people aged 8 and over will have the chance to try the Rail Bike, consisting of four-seat, pedal-powered "train cars," at a cost of NT$280 per person, according to county tourism official Ku Chen-wei (古鎮維).

The official opening of the Rail Bike is scheduled for January 2019, the bureau said.

The rail bikes will operate on parallel tracks from the Old Mountain Line Railway (舊山線), a 15.9-kilometer route that was operational from 1903 to 1998 and stretches from Sanyi Township in Miaoli to Houli District in Taichung.

The 6-km stretch being used for the Rail Bike system runs between Sanyi's Sheng Hsing and Neishechuan Bridge stations and passes several of the area's attractions, including the Broken Longteng Bridge that was built during the Japanese colonial era.

The project is being financed by a NT$300 million (US$9.84 million) grant from the Tourism Bureau to develop a rail biking system to promote the county's green tourism and make use of its defunct railroad tracks.

(By Kuan Jui-pin and Ko Lin)
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