By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
The long-mothballed Tropic of Cancer Railway Station in Chiayi County is expected to reopen next year following renovation work, serving as a transportation hub for visitors to nearby tourist attractions and allowing Taiwan Railway Corp to deploy trains more efficiently.
The railway station opened to the public in 1937 and was primarily used by freight trains, handling about 178,000 tonnes of cargo annually, the Railway Bureau said.
It also served passenger trains from 1949 to 1961 before being decommissioned in 2002.
The station is scheduled to reopen in the second half of next year after the bureau weighed residents’ request for train services in the southern part of Chiayi City and Shueishang Township （水上） in Chiayi County, Central Region Engineering Branch Deputy Director Lin Chien-chih （林健智） told a news conference in Taipei.
Another reason is the railway stations in Chiayi City need to be rebuilt for the Chiayi City Railway Elevated Project, Lin said.
As Chiayi County is famous for Alishan （阿里山）, stations along the elevated line would be rebuilt using forest imagery, Lin said.
The redesigned Tropic of Cancer Railway Station would adopt a “Forest of Light” theme, inspired by the sunlit landscape of the Tropic of Cancer, as well as the mountains, clouds and forest in Alishan, he said.
The cost of rebuilding Tropic of Cancer is estimated to top NT$600 million （US$18.3 million）, with average daily passenger volume reaching about 1,000 by 2030, Lin said.
The new station would have two covered platforms and four railway tracks, with each platform measuring about 260m long, he said.
Once the reconstruction is completed, Tzuchiang-class express trains could stop there, Lin said, adding that about 80 percent of the project is finished.
The station is about 4km from Chiayi Railway Station and 2.6km from Shueishang Station, and commuters living nearby could save about 20 minutes during peak traffic hours, Lin said.
The bureau said the station would feature an elevated concourse connecting areas on both sides of the tracks.
It would provide links to nearby recreational and educational attractions, including the Tropic of Cancer Landmark Park, the Space Education Center, the Tropic of Cancer Bikeway and the Jiayou Railway Bikeway.
The project would also integrate pedestrian routes, public spaces and transit connections in the surrounding area, allowing visitors to travel by train and explore nearby attractions on foot or by bicycle, while being introduced to astronomy and space science education, the bureau said.
The Chiayi Railway Depot, near Chiayi Railway Station, is primarily responsible for inspecting and maintaining local trains, it said.
As part of the railway elevation project, maintenance operations would be relocated to the Shueishang Rolling Stock Depot.
In addition to serving passengers, the reinstated Tropic of Cancer Station would serve as a control station for trains entering and leaving the Shueishang depot, the bureau said.
Whether more frequent northbound or southbound services would originate from the station would depend on Taiwan Railway’s operational plans, the bureau added.
新聞來源：
TAIPEI TIMES