A Taiwanese newspaper has raised a red flag about safety concern of Alishan Forest Railway that has fallen under the media outlet’s claim of the dual leadership of Forestry Bureau and Taiwan Railways Administration since May 2013.

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/11/26
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPIE (Taiwan News)–A Taiwanese newspaper has raised a red flag about safety

concern of Alishan Forest Railway that has fallen under the media outlet’s claim of the dual leadership of Forestry Bureau and Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) since May 2013.

According to a United Evening News report on November 25, TRA began to assist Forest Bureau in running Alishan Forest Railway in May 2013, but after four and a half years, the business model has not achieved the expected congenial partnership and beneficial results. Instead, the fact that operating budgets for the forest railway have to come from Forest Bureau has subjected the line to dual leadership and affected its safety.

The report cited a senior Alishan Forest Railway worker as saying that since the TRA took over the operation of the line, the safety bar has been raised, but as all engineering projects had to be approved by Forestry Bureau, not all urgent actions could be taken immediately, and “every time it had to be after something bad had happened, would Forestry Bureau attach great importance to what went wrong.”    [FULL  STORY]