Taiwan High Speed Rail Timeline

This timeline was published by the Taiwan Review on September 1, 2007.

June 1992 : The Executive Yuan approves a proposal by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) to build a high-speed railway.

May 1995 : The Legislative Yuan approves construction of the railway using the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

December 1997 : The Taiwan High Speed Rail Consortium, consisting of five companies, wins a bid to build and operate the rail system. The five companies are Continental Engineering Corp., TECO Corp., Pacific Electric Wire and Cable Co., the Evergreen Group, and the Fubon Group.

May 1998 : Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) is established.

July 1998 : The MOTC and THSRC sign the “Taiwan South-North High-Speed Railway Construction and Operation Contract”, which grants operating rights to THSRC for 35 years. The two sides also sign the “Taiwan South-North High-Speed Railway Station Development Contract”, which grants operating rights to THSRC for 50 years.

December 2000 : Construction of the system begins. THSRC signs a core system contract for electrical and mechanical equipment with Taiwan Shinkansen Corp., which consists of seven Japanese companies. They are Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba Corp., Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi Corp., Marubeni Corp., and Sumitomo Corp.

May 2004 : The civil engineering work is completed. The Taiwan High Speed Rail 700T trains are transported to Taiwan.

January 2005 : The high-speed railway begins trial runs.

April 2006 : The railway passes rigorous inspections.

January 2007 : The railway commences operations.