High Speed Rail was formally opened on January 15, 2007, which has shortened the travel time from Taipei to Kaohsiung to 90 minutes. All major cities in western Taiwan are included in one-day living circle. The high speed rail will connect the high speed mass transportation network originally formed by north-south Taiwan Railway system, the MRT system in various major cities and bus transportation as well as drive the readjustment for various transportation systems to fulfill the goal of “Mass transportation as primary, private transportation as supplementary” allowing the urban-rural development as well as social resources employment be more complete.
To correspond with demand of transit of passengers, in addition to improvement aiming at outward route system, the government also plans for the outer transportation system equipped with railway (including the train and MRT system) and highway transportation. High speed rail appeals for high speed while the outer route traffic smoothness and convenience actually affects the purchase intension of passengers. The current status of high speed rail development includes: there are already MRT, Taiwan Railway and shuttle bus available in Taipei, Banciao and Kaohsiung Stations; Taoyuand only has shuttle bus currently; especially that the Chiayi Station originally planned to adopt light rail transit to cooperate with the governmental policy for mass transportation, however, the “Bus Rapid Transit” (BRT) is alternatively taken to outer route transportation as considering the actual transportation demand of said Station at the beginning.
The more the closely connected and complete transportation network, the higher flexible and feasible mobility is given to people. In addition, the transportation infrastructure bears the important function of continuous development in term of regions, cities and industries. Therefore, how to review the development of outer route transportation in all HSR Stations and issues regarding response to global weather changes and traffic pollution and energy consumption derived as well as building quality traffic network and environments are important tasks of the study. The goals of outer route transportation services shall be on time and reliable, intensive and convenient as well as comfort and human base. The study actively plans the strategies for development of public transportation service network focusing on HSR to the expectation of shortening the traveling time among local centers in western transportation corridor and carry out the “Transit Oriented Development” (TOD) development.